I am a postdoc in a laboratory in the area of computer science. I have spent around 7 months mentoring a student master thesis. At the beginning this took significant work including me coming up with theorems and proofs for simplified models.
It has to be said that the student approach to the problem contradicted the lab supervisor wishes. That is, the student refused to immediatly apply a "generalisation" that the supervisor suggested him. As a response, the supervisor told me that he didn't care about the student thesis and ordered me to do it instead, pointing me briefly on the phone what he wanted.
As time went by, the student however took the lead and based on his previous experience with the topic he was able to prove similar theorems for more complicated models.
First submission.
The time for submission came through and the supervisor asked me to put in the format of the conference the work that I had. So I adapted the contents of the file that the student and me had being working on together. After not being able to precisely explain the intuitions for the more complicated models the supervisor went to the student. He also involved a team of 3 more people for the implementation part of the project. However, he did this in the last weeks of the submission so the paper could not be submitted.
Some days before the deadline, the supervisor and I had a meeting in which he implied (to my understanding, he later rejected having said that) that he was accusing me of plagiarising the student work. More precisely, he said that if he had published the work without the name of the student then he would have been in trouble (he did not discuss with me at any moment who would be an author in the paper). After that, he told me that he expected me to be more involved in the project. He never asked what I had contributed to the project.
After this, I spent several days in bed due to anxiety. Eventually however, I wrote two emails to my supervisor in which I reported what had being said in the meeting and asked for clarification. I got no answer to these emails.
Second submission.
After this, I continued advising the student's master thesis until it was completed. However, when the new submission deadline approached the supervisor started meeting and discussing with the student and the practical team without involving me in the project. I have still contributed minimally to the draft of the paper at several places but for instance the supervisor introduced a completely new proof of his own. The supervisor's only contact with me has been to tell me not to edit certain parts of the document (like introduction) which will be removed.
Other members of the projects told me they are also unsure of whether they would be included in the publication, but the supervisor keeps direct communication with them through shared groups. One of the members tried to leave the project and he was reintroduced in this channel by the supervisor.
My question.
There are few days left until the deadline arrives. My question is whether I should continue trying to improve the paper in a formal aspect even if not being requested to do anything.
