Authorship Criteria

1. General Principles

The journal is committed to maintaining high standards of publication ethics, academic integrity, and transparency in scholarly authorship. Authorship must be based on substantial intellectual contributions to the research and manuscript, rather than solely on academic position, institutional affiliation, seniority, or financial support.

All individuals listed as authors must have made meaningful contributions to the work, approved the final version of the manuscript, and agreed to be accountable for the integrity and accuracy of the research. The journal does not accept honorary, guest, or gift authorship, nor does it permit the omission of individuals who have made qualifying contributions.

2. Criteria for Authorship

To qualify for authorship, each author must meet the following criteria:

  1. Substantial contribution: Make a substantial contribution to the conception or design of the study; the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data; or the development of new methods, software, or other essential research components.

  2. Manuscript preparation or critical revision: Participate in drafting the manuscript or critically revising it for important intellectual content.

  3. Final approval: Review and approve the final version of the manuscript before submission or publication.

  4. Accountability: Agree to be accountable for their own contributions and to help ensure that questions concerning the accuracy, integrity, or ethical conduct of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

All four criteria must be satisfied for an individual to be recognized as an author. These principles are based on established international authorship guidance, including the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), adapted to the journal's disciplinary scope.

3. Contributions That Do Not Independently Qualify for Authorship

The following activities, when performed alone, are generally insufficient to establish authorship:

  • Providing funding or general administrative support.

  • Supervising a research group without making a qualifying intellectual contribution.

  • Collecting data without contributing substantially to the research design, analysis, interpretation, or manuscript.

  • Providing technical assistance, proofreading, language editing, or formatting.

  • Holding a senior academic, institutional, or professional position.

  • Providing access to facilities, equipment, participants, or research sites without other qualifying contributions.

Individuals who have contributed to the work but do not meet all authorship criteria should be acknowledged appropriately, with their permission, in the Acknowledgments section.

4. Author Contributions Statement

All submitted manuscripts must include an Author Contributions Statement that clearly describes the individual contributions of each author. The statement should accurately reflect the work performed and must be agreed upon by all listed authors.

Where appropriate, authors may use the CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy) to identify contributions, including:

  • Conceptualization

  • Methodology

  • Software

  • Validation

  • Formal analysis

  • Investigation

  • Resources

  • Data curation

  • Writing – original draft

  • Writing – review and editing

  • Visualization

  • Supervision

  • Project administration

  • Funding acquisition

Not every contribution role constitutes authorship on its own. The journal may request clarification if the stated contributions do not adequately support the authorship list.

5. First Author and Corresponding Author

The first author is generally the individual who has made the principal contribution to the research and manuscript preparation, subject to the conventions of the relevant discipline and the agreement of the co-authors.

The corresponding author is responsible for communication with the editorial office throughout submission, peer review, revision, and publication. The corresponding author must ensure that:

  • All authors meet the journal's authorship criteria.

  • All authors have approved the submitted manuscript and any subsequent revisions.

  • Author names, affiliations, and contribution statements are accurate.

  • All required declarations, permissions, and ethical approvals have been provided.

  • All co-authors are informed of editorial decisions and significant correspondence.

  • Any concerns regarding authorship, research integrity, or competing interests are disclosed promptly.

The corresponding author does not automatically have greater authorship rights or responsibility for contributions made by other authors.

6. Equal Contributions and Joint Authorship

The journal permits authors to indicate equal contributions, such as joint first authorship or joint senior authorship, where this accurately reflects the contributions made. Such arrangements must be explicitly stated in the manuscript and agreed upon by all authors.

The journal recommends providing a clear explanation of equal-contribution arrangements to avoid ambiguity in attribution.

7. Changes to Authorship

The author list, order of authors, and corresponding author designation should be finalized before manuscript submission.

Any request to add, remove, or rearrange authors after submission must be submitted to the editorial office with a written explanation. The request must include confirmation from all affected authors and the agreement of all listed authors, including individuals being added or removed where applicable.

The journal reserves the right to suspend editorial processing while an authorship dispute or change request is being evaluated. Changes will not be approved solely at the request of the corresponding author without appropriate justification and the required author confirmations.

After publication, authorship changes will be considered only in accordance with the journal's correction and publication ethics procedures.

8. Group Authorship

For collaborative research conducted by consortia, research groups, or other collective entities, the journal may recognize a group or consortium as an author where appropriate. The manuscript must clearly identify the individuals who qualify for authorship and specify the group members responsible for the work, in accordance with the journal's submission requirements and applicable indexing policies.

9. Use of Artificial Intelligence in Research and Manuscript Preparation

Artificial intelligence (AI) tools, including generative AI systems, cannot be listed as authors because they cannot assume responsibility for the accuracy, integrity, originality, and ethical conduct of scholarly work.

Authors who use AI tools in preparing a manuscript, generating or processing research materials, analyzing data, or producing content must disclose such use when required by the journal's AI policy or submission guidelines. The disclosure should identify the tool and describe its role sufficiently to support transparency and reproducibility.

Human authors remain fully responsible for verifying AI-generated content, checking references and factual claims, protecting confidential information, and ensuring compliance with research ethics and intellectual property requirements. Routine use of basic spelling, grammar, or reference-formatting tools may be exempt from disclosure if specified in the journal's AI policy.

10. Authorship Disputes and Ethical Concerns

Any concerns regarding inappropriate authorship, ghost authorship, gift authorship, unauthorized authorship changes, or disputes over contributions should be reported to the editorial office.

The journal will assess reported concerns fairly and confidentially, seek clarification and supporting documentation where necessary, and follow recognized publication ethics guidance. Where appropriate, the journal may request institutional assistance or refer the matter to the relevant research integrity office.

The journal may suspend peer review or publication while a serious authorship concern is investigated. If misconduct is established, appropriate action may be taken in accordance with the journal's publication ethics and correction policies.

11. Copyright and Open Access

Authorship and copyright ownership are related but distinct matters. Authors retain copyright in their published work, subject to the journal's publication agreement and applicable law.

Published articles are distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0), unless otherwise stated for specific content. This license permits sharing and adaptation, including commercial reuse, provided that appropriate attribution is given, a link to the license is supplied, changes are indicated, and adaptations are distributed under the same license.

All authors are responsible for ensuring that the manuscript is original, that contributions are properly attributed, and that any third-party materials are used with the necessary permissions or under applicable licensing terms.

12. Author Declaration

By submitting a manuscript to the journal, the corresponding author confirms, on behalf of all co-authors, that:

  1. The authorship list and order accurately reflect the contributions agreed upon by the authors.

  2. All listed authors meet the journal's authorship criteria and have approved the submitted manuscript.

  3. No qualifying contributor has been improperly excluded, and no individual has been included solely as an honorary or guest author.

  4. All authors agree to be accountable for their contributions and to cooperate in resolving questions about the integrity of the work.

  5. Any relevant conflicts of interest, funding sources, ethical approvals, and required AI-use disclosures have been provided.

  6. The manuscript complies with the journal's publication ethics, copyright, and licensing policies.

The journal may request additional documentation or clarification when necessary to verify compliance with these criteria.

Policy Review

This policy applies to all manuscripts submitted to the journal. The journal may update this policy when necessary to reflect developments in publication ethics, scholarly communication, and applicable international guidance. Any revised policy will be published on the journal's official website.