If warranted by his or her contributions, the director of the thesis may expect to be a co-author. If warranted by their contributions, other committee members may be considered for co-authorship also. If warranted by their contributions, other committee members may be considered for co-authorship also. Many cases may fall between the two extremes detailed above. In those cases first authorship should be given to the person who did the most work, with the various types of work weighted by their values.
Some work is more valuable than other work.
Designing the research and writing the manuscript are considered more valuable than doing the statistical analysis, which is considered more valuable than collecting the data. When the student and Karl have contributed equally, the student will get the first authorship. If the student does not complete the research, including defending and depositing the thesis and preparing the manuscript for submission for publication within the time limits mentioned above, then all rights to use of the data from that thesis revert to the director of the thesis committee. If the student's manuscript is rejected by the journal to which it is submitted, the student is expected to revise it and submit it to another journal within 6 months of the rejection notice. If the student does not do so, the student may loose rights of first authorship and the director may revise the manuscript and take first authorship.