Q: Where can I locate the lead author and corresponding author on a journal article?

Typically, an article follows the following format in terms of the placement of necessary components: Title > Running title (if required by the journal) > Author names > Author information. 

Thus, the author information can be found immediately below the author names.

Author names carry a superscript(s), which is/are used to indicate the following:

1. Extent of contribution. E.g.,  ^#Author A, ^#Author B, Author C

^#These authors contributed equally to this work.

Here the subscript “#” was used to indicate the extent of contribution.

In this case, Author A and Author B are the lead Authors.

If this is not the case, generally, the first author is the lead author.

2. Affiliation. E.g., ^aAuthor A, ^bAuthor B, ^cAuthor C.

^aUniversity of X

^bUniversity of Y

^cUniversity of Z

Here the subscripts “a, b, and c” were used to indicate the affiliation (information) of individual authors.

Thus, in a similar manner, the author information of the lead author can be identified.

3. Corresponding Author. E.g., ^aAuthor A, ^bAuthor B, ^c,*Author C.

^aUniversity of X

^bUniversity of Y

^cUniversity of Z

^*Corresponding author

Typically the asterisk symbol (*) is used to denote the Corresponding Author.

Here, the asterisk symbol “*” indicates the corresponding author, and the superscript “c” indicates the affiliation of the corresponding author.

Thus, the information on the corresponding author can be identified using the aforementioned/similar superscripts.