Authorship and Contributorship Policy

Authorship credits those who have made a substantial intellectual contribution to a study and who share responsibility for its content.

Authorship Criteria

An author must have made substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work, or to the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data; participated in drafting or critically revising the manuscript; approved the final version; and agreed to be accountable for the work. Persons who contributed in other ways, such as technical help, funding acquisition, or general supervision, should be listed in the acknowledgements.

Contributorship

Authors are encouraged to describe each author's contribution using the CRediT taxonomy at submission.

Changes to Authorship

Any addition, removal, or reordering of authors after submission must be requested in writing by the corresponding author, with the agreement of all authors, and is subject to editorial approval. Requests after acceptance require a clear justification.

Generative AI

Generative AI tools cannot be listed as authors because they cannot take responsibility for the work. See the Generative AI Usage Policy.

Disputes

Authorship disputes are handled according to COPE guidance. The journal may ask the authors' institutions to investigate.