1. The first author is the signature of the paper, and the second and third author is the second and third author. Generally speaking, it depends on the weight of your article. If the weight is sufficient, you can publish more than one author. An article from a multi-center clinical trial abroad can be published by 1 people.
2. Generally, an article also has a correspondent, who refers to the owner and director of the article. Others have a correspondent, who means a contact person.
3. The ranking can also be determined by both parties through consultation. If there is no agreement, the first author is usually ranked first, the second author is ranked second, and so on.
Extended information:
In the signature of innovative works, such as scientific research papers, patents, research reports, etc., the name of the person who has made the greatest contribution to the work is usually signed at the front.
Especially for the signature of scientific research papers, each journal has more detailed regulations; However, when the signature of the paper is used for the evaluation of professional titles, the weight of the first author is obviously heavier than that of the second and third authors, but lighter than that of the individual signature.
Due to the complexity and diversity of scientific research, for example, there are hundreds of people signing a paper in bioinformatics. The first author refers to the person whose signature ranks first, and some articles have two or more first authors, which is called tied first author. In this case, it is generally necessary to mark the person's name.
in addition, the first author is different from the correspondent, and different from the creative contribution, the correspondent is often acted by the most authoritative author in the field of the paper.
References: Baidu Encyclopedia-the first author.