Is it based on who contributed the most? How is this determined? Is it alphabetical? If so then someone with an A last name can contribute barely anything and everyone will still call it “Alberts et. al”
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It’s supposed to be by how much each person contributed. In practice, it gets more complicated. Group projects usually have the names a little more randomly.
In the case of professors advising or working with students, here’s how its supposed to work. Ethical professors will list the student first, ASSUMING the student did most of the work. As you can guess, not every professor is ethical. There are a few in every field who will insist on being first author, even if all they did was say hi to the student one day at lunch.
Being first author can be an ego thing. That is the name that will be associated with that paper and concept forevermore. Sometimes second authors will also be recognized, but rarely more than that.
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