Etiquette for discussing authorships, expectations, etc. with potential advisors

Think of your first meeting as a mutual interview. The adviser wants to know if you are worth spending time and money on. You need to ask questions to determine if the adviser is worth spending years of your life on.

Good topics for the first meeting are:

1. The adviser's expectations of you (including hours worked per week, number of papers to publish before graduating, etc.)
2. Your expectations of your adviser (Do you get vacation time? How long does it take your students to graduate? How much grant funding do you have? What earns me authorship on papers? etc.)
3. Your potential project (What are the long-term goals? What are the short-term objectives? Have other students worked on this project before?)
4. What preparations do you need to make? (Should you take a particular course? Should you read certain papers or books?)

You should also try to get candid answers to these questions from the students who already work for your potential adviser.

This question should be asked during your interview, in a polite but directed manner. The question is simply, "How do you assign authorship on papers co-authored with graduate students?" The answer should address who is on the paper, the ordering of the authorship, and what criterion is used to determine who is a co-author.

You should also definitely ask his current graduate students the exact same question, preferably students who have gone through the process of writing a paper with the advisor at least once, just to make sure that what the advisor says is mostly mirrored in what the students report.