First Author, Corresponding Author and Research Contribution

In many biomedical fields the first author often leads a substantial share of the work, while the last author may represent senior supervision. Other fields use alphabetical order, group authorship or different conventions. An automated system should not impose a single interpretation across disciplines.

The corresponding author typically manages submission and communication with the journal. That responsibility matters, but the designation does not by itself establish who made the largest scientific contribution. Contribution statements, where available, are more informative.

Counting every paper equally for every author can overstate individual output in very large teams. First-author shares, fractional methods and declared roles can add context, but incomplete metadata can bias these calculations too.

Keep accurate publication metadata, ORCID links and journal contribution statements. If a ranking attributes the wrong paper or author order, collect the article's official author list and request correction instead of trying to manipulate the score.