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APA Style Manual 7th Edition The Style Manual has the following to say in Section 1.22 With regards to professional authors (e.g., where it is not the work of a doctoral student):

Principal authorship and the order of authorship credit should accurately reflect the relative contribution of persons involved... The general rule is that ... principal contributor appears first, with subsequent names appearing in order of decreasing contribution. In some cases, another principal contributor appears last. These conventions can vary from field to field and from journal to journal... If authors played equal roles in the research and publication of their study, they may wish to note this in the author note.

Psychology: There are two distinct traditions to determining author-order in psychology, which we might label the APA and the biomedical traditions. The APA tradition orders authors by level of contribution. The biomedical approach places special importance on last author, who is often the supervisor of the work. Finally, given the clash of these two traditions, a hybrid model is also emerging where first author is most important, second and last author are next most important, and then third through second last are in descending contribution.

• The first author is usually the person that led the project, analyzed the data, and led drafting of the manuscript. They may or may not have collected the data personally.
• The second author: The meaning depends on the author-order tradition applied. Under the APA tradition, they would typically be the second-most important contributor, and where the project is a student or post doc paper, they are often the supervisor. Alternatively, in the biomedical tradition, their contribution is typically not considered to be as important as the last author.
• Other middle authors are usually involved in one part or another, lending statistical expertise, or subject-matter knowledge. They may also be junior people that collected the data (e.g. interviews, operating technology like EEG nets, etc.).
• The role of last author(s) depends on the author order tradition implied. They may be the least important contributor. Or they may be the supervisor or PI whose lab collected the data, obtained funding, etc. Data collection in psychology can be expensive and difficult, and take a long time. There can be multiple.
• Corresponding author is determined by various rules and is given minimal significance with regards to contribution. Corresponding author is most commonly the first author. If it a student-led work, it is also common for it to be the supervisor. Finally, it might simply be someone with a permanent position who might be able to answer questions years later after the first author has moved on.
• Shared first authorship is rare, but it is becoming more common. Alternating first authorship in close collaborations also does occur.

How do you determine whether last or second authorship implies a greater contribution in a psychology manuscript?

In general, there are a number of indicators that may suggest which author ordering principle was applied on a given paper. Last author is more commonly important (a) in fields aligned with medicine, neuroscience, and health, (b) in papers with many authors (e.g., 6+). Second author is more commonly important (a) in more psychological subdisciplines like social psychology, personality, experimental psychology, and industrial-organisational psychology, and (b) in papers with fewer authors.

More generally, second and last authorship tend to be more important roles where the first author is a student or post-doc. In those cases, it is often the case that either the second or last author supervised the work.

Given the ambiguity in psychology about the relative importance of second and last authorship, some academics in psychology will highlight the number of times they have been a lead author, which is often specified as first, second, or last authorship.

Psychology: There are two distinct traditions to determining author-order in psychology, which we might label the APA and the biomedical traditions. The APA tradition orders authors by level of contribution. The biomedical approach places special importance on the last author, who is often the supervisor of the work. Finally, given the clash of these two traditions, a hybrid model is also emerging where first authors are most important, second and last authors are equal-next-most important, and then third through second last are in descending contribution.

• The first author is usually the person that led the project, analyzed the data, and led drafting of the manuscript. They may or may not have collected the data personally.
• The second author: The meaning depends on the author-order tradition applied. Under the APA tradition, they would typically be the second-most important contributor, and where the project is a student or post doc paper, they are often the supervisor. Alternatively, in the biomedical tradition, their contribution is typically not considered to be as important as the last author.
• Other middle authors are usually involved in one part or another, lending statistical expertise, or subject-matter knowledge. They may also be junior people that collected the data (e.g. interviews, operating technology like EEG nets, etc.).
• The role of last author(s) depends on the author order tradition implied. They may be the least important contributor. Or they may be the supervisor or PI whose lab collected the data, obtained funding, etc. Data collection in psychology can be expensive and difficult, and take a long time. There can be multiple.
• Corresponding author is determined by various rules and is given minimal significance with regards to contribution. Corresponding author is most commonly the first author. If it a student-led work, it is also common for it to be the supervisor. Finally, it might simply be someone with a permanent position who might be able to answer questions years later after the first author has moved on.
• Shared first authorship is rare, but it is becoming more common. Alternating first authorship in close collaborations also does occur.

How do you determine whether last or second authorship implies a greater contribution in a psychology manuscript?

In general, there are a number of indicators that may suggest which author ordering principle was applied on a given paper. Last authors are more commonly important (a) in fields aligned with medicine, neuroscience, and health, and (b) in papers with many authors (e.g., 6+). Second authors are more commonly important (a) in more prototypical psychology subdisciplines like social psychology, personality, experimental psychology, and industrial-organisational psychology, and (b) in papers with fewer authors. In general, this seems to reflect patterns of collaboration. For instance, if academics are collaborating with the biomedical field, they absorb that tradition.

More generally, second and last authorship tend to be more important roles where the first author is a student or post-doc. In those cases, it is often the case that either the second or last author supervised the work.

Given the ambiguity in psychology about the relative importance of second and last authorship, some academics in psychology will highlight the number of times they have been a lead author, which is often specified as first, second, or last authorship.

Psychology: There are two distinct traditions to determining author-order in psychology, which we might label the APA and the biomedical traditions. The APA tradition orders authors by level of contribution. The biomedical approach places special importance on last author, who is often the supervisor of the work. Finally, given the clash of these two traditions, a hybrid model is also emerging where first author is most important, second and last author are next most important, and then third through second last are in descending contribution.

• The first author is usually the person that led the project, analyzed the data, and led drafting of the manuscript. They may or may not have collected the data personally.
• The second author: The meaning depends on the author-order tradition applied. Under the APA tradition, they would typically be the second-most important contributor, and where the project is a student or post doc paper, they are often the supervisor. Alternatively, in the biomedical tradition, their contribution is typically not considered to be as important as the last author.
• Other middle authors are usually involved in one part or another, lending statistical expertise, or subject-matter knowledge. They may also be junior people that collected the data (e.g. interviews, operating technology like EEG nets, etc.).
• The role of last author(s) depends on the author order tradition implied. They may be the least important contributor. Or they may be the supervisor or PI whose lab collected the data, obtained funding, etc. Data collection in psychology can be expensive and difficult, and take a long time. There can be multiple.
• Corresponding author is determined by various rules and is given minimal significance with regards to contribution. Corresponding author is most commonly the first author. If it a student-led work, it is also common for it to be the supervisor. Finally, it might simply be someone with a permanent position who might be able to answer questions years later after the first author has moved on.
• Shared first authorship is rare, but it is becoming more common. Alternating first authorship in close collaborations also does occur.

Psychology: There are two distinct traditions to determining author-order in psychology, which we might label the APA and the biomedical traditions. The APA tradition orders authors by level of contribution. The biomedical approach places special importance on last author, who is often the supervisor of the work. Finally, given the clash of these two traditions, a hybrid model is also emerging where first author is most important, second and last author are next most important, and then third through second last are in descending contribution.

• The first author is usually the person that led the project, analyzed the data, and led drafting of the manuscript. They may or may not have collected the data personally.
• The second author: The meaning depends on the author-order tradition applied. Under the APA tradition, they would typically be the second-most important contributor, and where the project is a student or post doc paper, they are often the supervisor. Alternatively, in the biomedical tradition, their contribution is typically not considered to be as important as the last author.
• Other middle authors are usually involved in one part or another, lending statistical expertise, or subject-matter knowledge. They may also be junior people that collected the data (e.g. interviews, operating technology like EEG nets, etc.).
• The role of last author(s) depends on the author order tradition implied. They may be the least important contributor. Or they may be the supervisor or PI whose lab collected the data, obtained funding, etc. Data collection in psychology can be expensive and difficult, and take a long time. There can be multiple.
• Corresponding author is determined by various rules and is given minimal significance with regards to contribution. Corresponding author is most commonly the first author. If it a student-led work, it is also common for it to be the supervisor. Finally, it might simply be someone with a permanent position who might be able to answer questions years later after the first author has moved on.
• Shared first authorship is rare, but it is becoming more common. Alternating first authorship in close collaborations also does occur.

How do you determine whether last or second authorship implies a greater contribution in a psychology manuscript?

In general, there are a number of indicators that may suggest which author ordering principle was applied on a given paper. Last author is more commonly important (a) in fields aligned with medicine, neuroscience, and health, (b) in papers with many authors (e.g., 6+). Second author is more commonly important (a) in more psychological subdisciplines like social psychology, personality, experimental psychology, and industrial-organisational psychology, and (b) in papers with fewer authors.

More generally, second and last authorship tend to be more important roles where the first author is a student or post-doc. In those cases, it is often the case that either the second or last author supervised the work.

Given the ambiguity in psychology about the relative importance of second and last authorship, some academics in psychology will highlight the number of times they have been a lead author, which is often specified as first, second, or last authorship.