Authorship & Contributorship

Authorship Criteria

An individual may be listed as an author only if all of the following authorship criteria are met:

• making a substantive contribution to the conception or design of the research, acquisition of data, analysis, or interpretation;
• contributing to the drafting of the manuscript or critically reviewing it in a manner that provides significant intellectual input;
• approving the final version of the manuscript to be published; and
• agreeing to be accountable for the accuracy, integrity, and part of the work to which the individual contributed, and to cooperate in resolving issues related to the manuscript where necessary.

Funding, institutional position, general supervision, administrative support, provision of facilities, language editing, proofreading, or technical assistance alone does not provide sufficient grounds for authorship.

Each author is responsible for ensuring that their contribution is accurately stated and that no individual is included or omitted in a manner inconsistent with the contribution actually made.

Author Contributions Statement

For manuscripts with more than one author, each author's contribution must be stated through an Author Contributions Statement.

The contribution statement follows CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy), which includes the following roles:

• Conceptualization;
• Data curation;
• Formal analysis;
• Funding acquisition;
• Investigation;
• Methodology;
• Project administration;
• Resources;
• Software;
• Supervision;
• Validation;
• Visualization;
• Writing – original draft; and
• Writing – review & editing.

An author may have more than one role, and a single role may be shared by more than one author. Assignment of a CRediT role does not by itself determine whether an individual qualifies for authorship, as authorship eligibility remains subject to the authorship criteria.

All authors must approve the Author Contributions Statement before publication.

Author Order and Corresponding Author

Author order is determined by agreement among all authors and must reflect the contribution arrangement agreed upon by the author team.

The corresponding author serves as the primary liaison between all authors and the journal throughout submission, peer review, revision, editorial decision, and the process leading to publication.

The corresponding author is responsible for:

• ensuring that all authors have approved the submission;
• ensuring that author names, author order, affiliations, and other authorship information have been verified;
• coordinating communication between the journal and all authors;
• ensuring that all authors are informed of and respond to relevant revision or clarification requirements;
• ensuring that the final version has been approved by all authors; and
• ensuring that the Author Contributions Statement accurately reflects the agreed contributions.

Corresponding author status does not by itself indicate that the author made the greatest contribution. The first author and corresponding author may be the same or different individuals according to the agreement of the author team.

Requirements concerning the entry of author metadata in the journal system follow the Submission & Publication Procedure.

Non-Author Contributors and Acknowledgment

Individuals who contribute to the research or preparation of the manuscript but do not meet all authorship criteria are not listed as authors.

Such contributions may be recognized in the Acknowledgment section, including:

• technical assistance;
• administrative assistance;
• language editing or proofreading;
• access to facilities or resources;
• assistance with collecting specific information;
• technical support related to data or tools; or
• other relevant contributions that do not meet the criteria for authorship.

The identification of an individual in the Acknowledgment must accurately reflect the contribution provided and, where the individual's identity is stated, must be made with that individual's consent.

Authorship Changes

Author names, author order, corresponding author, and contributions must be determined accurately from the time of submission.

Authorship changes before publication may be processed only where there is a justified reason and the change is supported by the agreement of all relevant parties.

A request for change may involve:

• adding an author;
• removing an author;
• changing the author order;
• changing the corresponding author; or
• making a substantive change to the Author Contributions Statement.

Each request must include the reason for the change and the agreement of all listed authors, including any individual to be added or removed where applicable. The editorial process may be suspended until the journal receives adequate documentation and the authorship matter has been resolved.

Once an article is published, its author list, author order, and authorship status are final. A correction may address a typographical error in a name or affiliation without adding or removing an author, changing the author order, or changing any person's authorship status. Such limited corrections follow Corrections, Retractions, & Withdrawals.

Inappropriate Authorship Practices and Disputes

The journal does not permit authorship practices that do not accurately reflect actual contributions.

Such practices include:

• guest authorship, which involves listing an individual because of reputation, position, or another reason without a contribution that meets the authorship criteria;
• gift authorship, which involves granting authorship on the basis of a personal relationship, courtesy, reciprocal interest, or a similar reason;
• ghost authorship, which involves omitting an individual who made a substantive contribution that should have been recognized through authorship or contributorship; and
• listing AI or automated tools as an author or co-author.

AI or automated tools cannot qualify for authorship because they cannot fulfill the responsibility and accountability required of authors. Requirements concerning their use follow the AI & Automated Tools Policy.

The journal may suspend a disputed authorship case before publication until the parties resolve it and provide adequate documentation.

The relevant parties must resolve post-publication authorship disputes. Unresolved disputes affecting article integrity may lead to action under Publication Ethics & Malpractice and Corrections, Retractions, & Withdrawals. The published author list remains final.