Ranking system on Voyager

[Pan13]

Okay, here's something I never really got. How exactly does the ranking system aboard Voyager work? Like, who is crewman, who is above who commando wise etc.
The way I imagined it, everyone who was Starfleet had their fancy titles, like Ensign/Lieutenant and what not and the Maquis people didn't. But then how does B'Elanna end up with the rank of Lieutenant? I mean, she dropped out of Starfleet Academy after only one year, so that can't be it!
And hirarchy wise, in the Unimatrix Zero episode, when Janeway and Tuvok are on the Borg vessel, Chakotay is left in command and Tom Paris proclaims himself commander, because he is next in rank aftger Tuvoc. But how exactly does that work out? As I remember it, Tom Paris was just an ex-con who was supposed to accompany Voyager on one mission because of his Marquis knowledge, how the hell can he then be 4th in command? I mean, weren't there any people originally on Voyager that had a high position and didn't wind up dead?

[robbiewebster]

In one of the very early episodes Janeway and Chakotay agree that the two crews need to merge and work together to get home. They try to find suitable positions for the Maquis. I think the ranks that they are given are only field ranks.

[Lord Borg]

Ranks and titles are differnt, the confusion comes from the fact that some titles, have similar (if not actually the same) names to ranks. Like it was said above, the Maquis members were given provisional ranks biased on their positions. My one complaint with this is that most of them were given enlisted ranks, what a gip,

With Paris, he was claiming himself to be the First Officer, with Tuvox gone, Janeway gone, it was left to Chakotay to be in command. Paris was the next person in terms of rank and that he was a bridge officer. Thus he was the de facto First Officer.

[belannatorres44]

[Sara_Chakotay]

The Maquis do have ranks
if you look at chakotay B'elanna or even seska they have little like bar things on their collars that has to be rank some way or another so b'elanna must've been the same rank as a Lt in the Maquis