Second Author

"Did you come up with all of this?" Professor Tao asked, suppressing his excitement.

"Of course."

"Incredible!"

"Professor Tao, what do you think?"

"I don't really know how to evaluate it. To be honest, when I helped you revise your previous paper, 'A Hypothesis on the Aggregated State of Compressed Electrons,' I gave it a lot of thought. I felt it was a huge idea with a non-zero possibility of realization, but definitely not something achievable with current technology."

Professor Tao continued, "But after reading 'Accelerating Proton and Electron Bifurcation Using the Isolation Method,' it suddenly opened a new world for me. It turns out your previous hypothesis can actually be realized theoretically, which greatly increases its persuasiveness."

"Can it be published in a better SCI journal?" Du Ke pressed, still concerned about the paper's publication.

After all, his entrepreneurial plan required a massive capital injection. To attract investors, he needed significant appeal, and a strong paper was a crucial promotional tool.

"Not for now, Xiao Du. Publishing it in the 'Journal of Chemical Physics' is fine. If someone is truly interested, they'll find it. If not, sending it elsewhere will just get it rejected. Wasn't Einstein's relativity met with widespread opposition at first? And your work can't even compare to relativity."

"Alright, but I'll still need Professor Tao's help with polishing and translating this paper."

"I'll definitely help, but, uh, Xiao Du, I have a small request." Professor Tao hesitated and hemmed and hawed for a while before finally saying, "I feel that the ideas in your two papers are truly brilliant, and they have the potential for realization. Even if it's not possible now, it might be in the future."

"And?" Du Ke asked.

"I was wondering if you could add my name to the author list. Don't worry, you'll still be the corresponding author and the first author. I just want to be the second author. Really, I'll revise, polish, and translate for you voluntarily!"

After thinking for a moment.

Du Ke nodded in agreement. "Okay, Professor Tao. You were involved in the revision, so being listed as the second author won't be an issue."

A paper can have multiple authors, with the first author and corresponding author being the most important. For things like professional title evaluation, publishing papers as the first author is often required. Of course, writing a paper alone is always better than co-authoring, as co-authored papers can dilute the credit.

However, it didn't matter much to Du Ke. He wasn't working in a government institution and didn't need to worry too much about it. The only thing he couldn't give up was the corresponding author position.

The corresponding author often signifies the overall project leader and copyright holder.

"Thank you, Xiao Du. Haha! As long as this paper gets noticed, Old Tao can benefit too. Perhaps if your paper gets cited many times, it will even help me get promoted to professor." Having secured a benefit, Professor Tao now referred to himself as "Old Tao."

Previously, no matter how much money he earned from Du Ke, he maintained his professorial demeanor. Now, calling himself "Old Tao" showed that, in his heart, academia was more important.

If Du Ke could help his academic career, he couldn't afford to put on airs.

"It's a shame the 'Journal of Chemical Physics' only has an impact factor of 0.4. The gap is too large. I checked, and China's top SCI journal, 'Cell Research,' already has an impact factor of 20."

"Can they even be compared? China's best fields are biology and medicine, with SCI journals having impact factors over 5 being quite common. There are only about a dozen physics SCI journals in total, and only two of them have an impact factor over 5, both of which are in optics. Publishing in a journal with a 0.4 impact factor is already good."

After chatting for a while longer, Professor Tao left with the new paper. "I'll revise 'Accelerating Proton and Electron Bifurcation Using the Isolation Method' for you first, and then submit it along with 'A Hypothesis on the Aggregated State of Compressed Electrons.' The 'Journal of Chemical Physics' is a bimonthly publication, so the release is a bit slow. Publishing both together will be more impactful."

"Okay."

Driving back to the villa, Du Ke continued working on his third paper.

Every day, when he had free time, he would go to the car modification shop, come up with modification plans, and fool some rich second-generation kids. His life was comfortable and peaceful. However, because he dedicated too much time to research, his learning progress slowed down, and consequently, the accumulation of Mind Power also decelerated. When bored, he would also practice the Touch of Mind.

The young beauty next door, who was being kept, served as his experimental subject. He would often stand by the wall and practice the Touch of Mind, sensing her emotions and thoughts.

Most of the time, it was a chaotic stream of thoughts that bombarded his brain. But on a few occasions, when the young beauty was focused on playing a game, he could clearly sense her emotions.

He could even put himself in her shoes and feel the joy of the game.

"The Touch of Mind is a bridge. Perhaps I can use this ability to communicate with the indigenous inhabitants of the Fantasy World... Can those Mushroom People really communicate?" He considered the hypothetical Mushroom People as intelligent beings in the Fantasy World, but he always felt their intelligence was limited.

After all, how intelligent could a race living in mushrooms be?

He had also tried to communicate with cats and dogs using the Touch of Mind, but all he felt were chaotic thoughts. Occasionally, he could pick up clear emotions like "comfortable" or "hungry." This indicated that communicating with animals using the Touch of Mind was extremely difficult, almost impossible.

In the blink of an eye, March arrived.

Du Ke's third paper was still lacking something. He was racking his brain, trying to figure out how to write the principles without involving specific data.

Meanwhile, at the editorial department of the 'Journal of Chemical Physics' at Huaxia University of Science and Technology, several editorial board members were engaged in a lively discussion, with Professor Tao, who was not an official member, among them.

"The concept of electron flow is indeed bold, but it's unrealistic to implement. I believe the theory might be correct, but it's technically difficult to achieve and not practical enough. It can only serve as a theoretical supplement to current particle-related knowledge," one board member stated.

Another board member shook his head. "The bifurcation of proton flow and electron flow is, in my opinion, a castle in the air. It cannot be realized."

"Regardless of whether it can be realized or not, it represents a new line of thinking. Whether it's right or wrong doesn't prevent it from proposing entirely new possibilities. Honestly, these two papers are linked. I'm starting to wonder if this author, Du Ke, will write a third one?"

"Professor Tao, you're the second author. What do you say?"

Professor Tao smiled and said, "Don't laugh at me, your second author, but I basically just helped Du Ke with revisions and translation to get this position. As for the third paper, I asked Du Ke, and he said he's working on it, but he didn't reveal what direction it's in or if it's a continuation of the previous two."

"Who exactly is this Du Ke? Can you introduce him? I feel his papers are wildly imaginative, and he's a promising talent. He's not one of your graduate students, is he, Old Tao?"