Lets try to solve the issues one at a time.

Query below should serve as a template for what you want, could you please try it?

select p.publication_id,
p.title,
a.a_lname
from publications p,
publications_author a
where p.publication_id = a.publication_id
a.publicationa_id =
(select min(aa.publicationa_id)
from publications_author aa
where p.publication_id = aa.publication_id
)
order by p.title, a.a_lname
;


In regards to the comma issue... either I'm missing something really big or it's related ColdFusion, don't know why. In your case I would try some ColdFusion forum and check for the comma issue.