Authorship and contributorship policy:
The journal is committed to promoting integrity, transparency, and accountability in scholarly publishing and adheres to the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) Core Practices, the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing, and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) Recommendations regarding authorship.
To qualify as an author, an individual must meet all of the following criteria:
- Have made a substantial contribution to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work;
- Have drafted the manuscript or critically revised it for important intellectual content;
- Have approved the final version of the manuscript before submission and publication; and
- Agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work, ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.
Individuals who contribute to the work but do not meet all the above authorship criteria (e.g., those providing technical assistance, language editing, data collection, administrative support, or funding acquisition only) should not be listed as authors. Their contributions may be acknowledged in the Acknowledgements section with their prior permission. Contributions that do not meet the criteria for authorship, including technical assistance, language editing, administrative support, funding acquisition, or general supervision, should be recognized appropriately in the Acknowledgements section.
The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that:
- Ensure and Collect ORCID iDs and conflict of interest disclosures from all authors
- Retain raw data and code for post-publication inquiries.
- All individuals who meet the authorship criteria are included as authors;
- No individual who does not meet the criteria is listed as an author;
- All co-authors have reviewed and approved the final manuscript and consented to its submission; and
- All authors agree to be accountable for the published work.
The corresponding author also serves as the primary contact between the journal and all co-authors during the submission, peer-review, publication, and post-publication processes and is responsible for ensuring the accuracy and completeness of all information provided during manuscript submission.
Any request to add, remove, or rearrange authors after manuscript submission or after acceptance must be supported by a written explanation and the signed consent of all authors. Such requests will be considered by the Editorial Office in accordance with the journal's policies and the COPE guidance on authorship and contributorship.
COPE guidance on authorship and contributorship
Artificial intelligence (AI) tools and large language models (e.g., ChatGPT) cannot be listed as authors because they cannot assume responsibility or accountability for the published work. Authors who use AI-assisted tools during manuscript preparation must disclose such use in the manuscript in accordance with the journal's policy on generative artificial intelligence (AI). The use of AI tools for the fabrication or manipulation of research data, images, results, references, or scientific conclusions is strictly prohibited.
The journal discourages ghost, guest, and gift authorship. Journal prefers author contributions should be described using the CRediT taxonomy. CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy) is a standardized system that specifies individual author contributions in a research paper, improving transparency and accountability. It includes roles like Conceptualization (Formulation of overarching research goals and aims), Methodology (Development or design of methodology; creation of models), Investigation (Conducting the research and data/evidence collection), Data curation, Formal Analysis (Applying statistical, mathematical, or computational techniques), Writing–original draft (Preparation and creation of the initial manuscript draft), Writing–review & editing (Critical revision and intellectual contribution during drafting), etc.
The journal follows the COPE Core Practices and COPE flowcharts in handling authorship disputes and, where appropriate, may seek clarification or request an investigation by the authors' affiliated institution(s). Editorial decisions regarding authorship disputes will be made only after appropriate investigation, consideration of the available evidence, and consultation with the relevant parties, where necessary.