Chief Statisticians as Second-to-Last Authors in Biomedical Papers

Abstract

In biomedical papers resulting from the cooperation of a biomedical team and a statistical team, the leader of the statistical team is traditionally placed second-to-last in the authors’ list. In many papers, the leader of the statistical team designs, initiates, and supervises the project, so they play a key role in the production of a scientific publication. This key role is not reflected in systems of evaluation of scientific publications in which the second-to-last author receives equal or less credit than the other co-authors.