The Journal follows the authorship recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) and the guidance of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Authorship credits only those who made a genuine intellectual contribution to the work.
Who qualifies as an author. A person is listed as an author only if they meet all four criteria:
- Substantial contribution to the conception or design of the work, or to the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data.
- Drafting the manuscript or revising it critically for important intellectual content.
- Final approval of the version to be published.
- Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work, including its accuracy and integrity.
Contributors who do not qualify. Persons who only provided funding, general supervision, administrative support, language editing, or data collection without further intellectual involvement are named in the Acknowledgments section, with their permission.
Author contributions. Each manuscript should state the role of every author. The Journal recommends the CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy) categories, such as conceptualization, methodology, investigation, formal analysis, writing – original draft, and writing – review & editing.
Corresponding author. One author acts as corresponding author. This author communicates with the editorial office during submission, review, and publication, and ensures that all co-authors have seen and approved the manuscript and agree with its submission.
Order of authors. The order of authors is a joint decision of all co-authors and must be settled before submission.
Changes in authorship. Any addition, removal, or reordering of authors after submission requires a written request from the corresponding author explaining the reason, together with the signed agreement of all authors, including those being added or removed. Changes are not accepted after the article has been published, except through a formal correction.
Artificial intelligence tools. AI tools cannot be listed as authors because they cannot take responsibility for the work. Authors who use AI tools in writing or analysis must disclose this in the manuscript and remain fully responsible for its content.
Authorship disputes. The Journal does not decide disputes over authorship. Suspected cases of ghost, guest, or gift authorship are handled according to COPE flowcharts, which may include contacting the authors' institutions.