Consider the following variation of a scenario presented by Fine and Kurdek (1993) as part of their discussion of the issue of determining authorship of a publication.

An undergraduate student asked a psychology faculty member to supervise an honors thesis.

The student proposed a topic, the faculty member and the student jointly developed the research methodology, the student collected and entered the data, and with help from the faculty member conducted the statistical analyses.

The student wrote the thesis under very close supervision by the faculty member. After the honors thesis was completed, the faculty member decided that data from the project were sufficiently interesting to warrant publication. Because the student did not have the skills necessary to write up the study for a scientific journal, the faculty member did so.

A. Identify the factors in the situation you would consider to determine whether the student should be an author of any publication resulting from this work, or whether the student’s work should be acknowledged in a footnote to the article.

B. If you decide that the student should be an author, explain whether you think the student should be the first author or the second author of the article.