system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Authorship Negotiation

I’m a full time research employee (not a student) who was desperately asked to join a STEM research project that needed to be revived so it wouldn’t fail. I accepted and have been working on it for nearly a year. I updated an intervention and coordinated expert panel review of it as well. We are in the middle of testing everything now, and I realized nobody ever spoke to me about authorship. 

I’m first generation college and feel very taken advantage of by the PIs I work with because most ethical standards note authorship should be discussed upfront and first. 

I recently reported racial misconduct in the lab and feel I may be denied authorship in retaliation. 

I’d like advice on how to negotiate authorship now while I search for a new opportunity.
gpt
Despite what you've read about ethical standards, authorship is usually not discussed upfront, other than between collaborating PIs. With students, authorship is implied, providing that the student does productive and rigorous work under the PI's supervision. 

If you've done what you describe and you're the student most actively leading the work, it's fine for you to assume you're on the paper, and to ask your PI (1) if there's anything you should be doing to start preparing the manuscript, or (2) what their expected timeline is for this to get written up.