Pragmatics of authors-name order

[RonButters at AOL.COM]

In a message dated 2/24/04 11:58:28 AM, lesa.dill at WKU.EDU writes:

<< In scientific publications, the norm is that the primary investigator's
name is
listed last.  >>

Is this written down somewhere, or are you just reporting your intuitions?
(Not that the reporting of intuitions is bad--it is just important to know what
the source is for such judgments.)