In the case where outside collaborators are involved, outside faculty or senior researchers from national laboratories, etc. will determine authorship in conjunction with Penn faculty. The main criteria for authorship is significant scientific contribution and public responsibility for the result. This is to be determined by the faculty involved in the theoretical work. The Order of Authors In HEP experiment, the author order is determined by the bylaws of the collaboration. In HEP theory and all other groups in the department, two methods are used.
Some groups order the paper's authors in alphabetical order.
If this is not the case, the person making the greatest scientific contribution is the first author. It is usually clear who has done this. Subsequent authors are listed in order of decreasing scientific contribution. If a group structure exists, then only a majority of the faculty in the group could change the group's authorship rule. Sometimes, even when the rules have been followed, a student may feel unfairly treated.