u/the-big-girl-daybook

First semester of grad school (international student), just wrapped my first collaborative paper. I was told an asterisk (*) after a name indicates co-first authorship. The final author order is:

•	Person A\*  
•	Person B\*  
•	Person C  
•	Person D  
•	Me\* (at the very bottom)  
•	Advisor

So three of us have the asterisk, but I’m listed last among the students, and it’s not alphabetical. The initial three of us did the bulk of the work, with two additional collaborators and our advisor.

Is this normal? Am I overreacting, or is it reasonable to ask about this on Overleaf? Could be something small I’m misreading, but I’m also wondering if it was intentional. Did they think I was useless?

Any experience with this?