Authorship in Research

Q: Can I be the corresponding author as well as the main author for my first submission?

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I am a resident at a university hospital and am in the middle of preparing a manuscript for my future career. My professor is busy with his work and has been entrusted with this role while he is on a short-term deputation at my hospital. Thus I am not sure whether he will be reachable on the insitutional email address for long. Not only that, although he laid out the plan roughly, I am the one who did all the research. The thing I am concerned about is I might miss out some of the crucial replies from the journal in case he is the corresponding author. To prevent the situation, do you think I have to be the corresponding as well as the main author?

Asked on 24 Aug, 2017

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There is nothing wrong in the first author or lead author being the corresponding author as well. In fact, for single author papers, that is always the case. The purpose of having a corresponding author is to facilitate ease of communication with the journal. Therefore, if you feel that it would be easier if you are the point of contact for the journal, you can go ahead and list yourself as both the lead author as well as the corresponding author. However, since your professor has made intellectual contributions to the study by laying out the initial plan and study design, he should definitely be a co-author. You can discuss this with your professor to ensure that there is no misunderstanding later.