Authorship

It is important that the correct list of authors is attributed to an article from the start of the submission process. Author lists with the incorrect information can result in academic or financial implications, whilst also providing the reader with the wrong information on where the responsibility and accountability for the published work should lie.

All authors listed on a submission must have given prior approval to have their name attributed to the file(s) that are being submitted and agree to the publication. The corresponding author has responsibility to ensure that all authors qualify for, and have agreed to, authorship of the submission. They are also responsible for informing all co-authors of relevant editorial information during the review process.

Our recommendations are adapted from the ICMJE criteria for authorship and are in accordance with COPE guidelines. Authors must have:

- made substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; or the drafting the work, or revising the draft critically for important intellectual content

- provided final approval of the version to be published

- agreed 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

- agreed to be named on the author list, and approved of the full author list as well as the order in which they are listed

Those that meet some but do not meet all of the above criteria should be acknowledged in the publication but not listed as an author. Examples that do not qualify for authorship but should be acknowledged are sources of funding, supervision of research groups, administrative support, language editing and proof reading. Written permission should be obtained from those being acknowledged, as in some cases being named in such a way may be seen as an endorsement of the publication.

Authorship and AI tools
AI tools do not qualify for authorship as it is impossible for them to be held accountable for all aspects of the work. An AI tool should not be included in the author list of a manuscript. As with all content submitted to the journal, the author(s) must ensure that they have permission to use all third-party content included within the submission, including those sourced using AI.

For further guidelines on the use of AI tools by authors, see our full AI Policy.