@yaelwrites @eric Different institutions and labs have different standards for whose name goes where (Eric’s link is a great example), but generally the first author is the lead for the project/paper, and the last author might be the head of that lab. Contributing authors will be in between, sometimes in order of how much they contributed. First and last will be the top candidates for an interview : )
Prestige in science is often measured in how many papers have your name on them, which journals they were published in, and how many times those papers have been cited in other papers. Hence the politics.
That’s why I’m surprised you don’t see something similar for news articles. Honestly, I think movies do the best job. Everyone involved is listed at the end with their job title.