Phd Professor as co-author

Question

I am an undergraduate student and while I was taking a class I happened to come up with some new concepts contrary to what my professor had told me regarding their possibility.

I have published in other journals but never in IEEE transactions, this could very well give a solid backing to any SOP I would write for my Phd studies. My professor is a Phd and he has various connections and stuff. He was impressed with the work and told me to publish it. However, I have heard that publishing in IEEE transactions is extremely hard: would including my professor as a co-author, with his doctoral degree, help in the review process? Not influence it or something, but would they at-least take me seriously? Normally, I don't fret about being published and stuff but to get a good school for Phd it's essential that I have this done. What are your thoughts?

Answer 1

Adding your professor as a co-author in name only won't help from the perspective of being taken more seriously in the review process.

Including your professor as a genuine co-author will almost certainly help in that your professor has a lot more experience in writing papers, knows how to write in a scientific way, how much background to include, what previous work by others is relevant, which results to highlight, how to format the paper so that it meets the requirements of the journal and is enjoyable for experts to read, and how to engage constructively with the review process. And don't under-estimate them: they might even have some scientific insights to add to your own.

Answer 2

It doesn't matter.

IEEE Transactions are using Double-Blind Peer Review, which means that the author identities are not revealed to the reviewers, and you will not know either the identities of your reviewers.

If you are wondering whether including your professor as a co-author will give you some advantage in the review process, the answer is no. However, He can surely contribute with your paper and help you address the comments of the reviewers, so it's definitely a good idea include him if he wants to be involved.

Good luck!

Answer 3

To be an author on a paper means that person has contributed to that paper. Your question as it is phrased is not properly answerable as a person cannot be added to a paper solely for a possible submission advantage.

But we can consider the hypothetical situation where this occurs (as there is nothing physically stopping someone from doing so). I've reviewed a number of papers over the years, and as a human being, I will start with a more positive outlook when reviewing papers whose authors have a consistent history of submitting good work. This is less to do with their listed degrees, but with my personal history of reading or reviewing their papers. This may result in giving them the benefit of the doubt on some issues, if unintentionally. Overall, however, I believe this effect to be minor; a listed well established name does not change whether the work is novel and a contribution or whether that claim is correctly supported. Adding an author in your proposed case will not lessen the chance of rejection.

As an undergraduate with a limited history of publishing papers, it is likely to your advantage to work with this professor to improve your work for a higher chance of acceptance. He should be able to direct you about typical paper contents and, with his greater experience, may be able to point out and help resolve aspects of your concept you have overlooked. This last component is important and worthy of an authorship. I would suggest considering offering a place as second author if he is willing to help you and contribute in this manner.