Andrew Fire 和 Craig Mello因发现双链RNA引发基因沉默现象而获Nobel奖。 评奖委员会认为突破性的进展发表于1998年nature上的一篇文章。 在这篇文章中，Andrew FIre是第一作者和通讯作者，而Craig Mello是最后一个作者。其余作者与诺奖无缘。 据我所知，通讯作者并不是中国人发明的。许多著名杂志明确定义了corresponding author的责任。 PNAS《美国科学院院刊》 We have codified a change in our interpretation of corresponding author. This term means literally the person who handles correspondence regarding a paper, but by implication and practice, it also identifies a guarantor of the published work. We now state explicitly that the corresponding author must be a guarantor of a significant part or all of the work. A coauthor can also be a guarantor as indicated in the opening statement of principles. 参见：http://www.pnas.org/content/101/29/10495.full Nature ----- Corresponding author - prepublication responsibilities The corresponding (submitting) author is solely responsible for communicating with the journal and with managing communication between coauthors. Before submission, the corresponding author ensures that all authors are included in the author list, its order has been agreed by all authors, and that all authors are aware that the paper was submitted. After acceptance, the proof issent to the corresponding author, who circulates it to all coauthors and deals with the journal on their behalf; the journal will not necessarily correct errors after publication if they result from errors that were present on a proof that was not shown to coauthors before publication. The corresponding author is responsible for the accuracy of all content in the proof, in particular that names of coauthors are present and correctly spelled, and that addresses and affiliations are current. Corresp onding author - responsibilities after publication The journal regards the corresponding author as the point of contact for queries about the published paper. It is this author's responsibility to inform all coauthors of matters arising and to ensure such matters are dealt with promptly. This author does not have to be the senior author of the paper or the author who actually supplies materials; this author's role is to ensure enquiries are answered promptly on behalf of all the co-authors . The name and e-mail address of this author (on large collaborations there may be two) is published in the paper. 参见：http://www.nature.com/authors/editorial_policies/authorship.html ----------- 中国的学术评价体系给通讯作者附加另一层含义，即责任作者。有些类似于PNAS中的定义，即为论文数据的真实性承担责任，同时较多地享有此论文可能获得的荣誉。 另外，在欧美体系的生物学杂志中，往往认为senior author排在最后。我想这可能是Craig Mello作为最后一名作者，可以与Andrew Fire共享Nobel奖的原因吧。
标签: 贡献
