All individuals listed as an author
should meet the authorship criteria recommended by the International Committee of Medical
Journal Editors (ICMJE). The ICMJE recommends that authorship is
based on the following four criteria:
1. Substantial contributions to the
conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or
interpretation of data for the work.
2. Drafting the work or reviewing it
critically for important intellectual content.
3. Final approval of the version to be
published.
4. Agreement to be accountable for all
aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity
of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.
In addition to being accountable for the
parts of the work they have done, authors should also be able to identify which
co-authors are responsible for specific other parts of the work to ensure that
the contributions of all authors are accurately and appropriately acknowledged.
Authors may use CRediT
(Contributor Roles Taxonomy) to
provide information about individual contributions at the time of submission.
It is expected that all authors agreed upon their individual contributions as
shared by the corresponding author. The authors’ contribution statement will be
published with the final article and should accurately reflect contributions to
the work.
Furthermore, authors should have
confidence in the integrity of the contributions of their co-authors. This
means that they should trust that their co-authors have conducted the research
in an ethical and responsible manner, and that the data and results presented
in the manuscript are accurate and reliable.
Individuals who do not meet all four of
the authorship criteria should not be included as authors on the manuscript.
However, they can still be acknowledged on the title page of the manuscript for
their contributions to the research in order to recognize the contributions of
these individuals and to provide transparency about who was involved in the
research.
If the editorial board suspects a case
of ghost, honorary or gift authorship, the submission will be suspended and the
relevant COPE flowchart and COPE Policy on authorship and contributorship
will be followed.
Corresponding Author
Each manuscript must have one designated
corresponding author responsible for communication with the editorial office
during the submission, peer review, and publication process.
The corresponding author is responsible
for ensuring that all authors approve the final version of the manuscript and
agree to its submission and publication.
Authorship Disputes
Authors are strongly advised to ensure
that the author list, the Corresponding Author, and the order of authors are
correct at the time of initial submission.
Requests for the addition, removal, or
rearrangement of authors after submission are generally not permitted and will
be considered only in exceptional circumstances at the discretion of the
Editor-in-Chief. Any such request must include a detailed justification and
written agreement from all authors, including any author being added or
removed.
Changes in authorship, including the
addition or removal of authors, changes in the Corresponding Author, or changes
in the order of authors, are not permitted after acceptance of the manuscript.
Authorship disputes will be handled in
accordance with COPE recommendations. The journal does not adjudicate
authorship disputes and may require the authors and their institutions to
resolve such disputes before the editorial or publication process can proceed.