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Authorship Rules and Authors' Contribution

Last Update: 18 December, 2024 | 12:08

Who is the Author?

Our core practice regarding authorship rules originated from the ICMJE, which defines the Role of Authors and Contributors. Based on ICMJE, authorship criteria must match the below conditions:

  1. Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data
  2. Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content.
  3. Final approval of the version published.
  4. Agreement 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.

In addition to being accountable for the parts of their work, an author should identify which co-authors are responsible for specific other work details. Also, the authors should have confidence in the integrity of the contributions of their co-authors. All those designated as authors should meet all four criteria for authorship, and all who meet the four criteria should be identified as authors. The acknowledgments section should list those who do not meet all four criteria. Participation solely in the acquisition of funding, data gathering, technical help, writing assistance, and general supervision of the research group does not warrant authorship. Financial and material support should also be acknowledged. Please guarantee that anyone stated in the Acknowledgements section has granted its clearance for permission to be listed.

What is a Corresponding Author?

A corresponding author is an individual who, when working on a paper with multiple authors, takes primary responsibility for communicating with the journal you intend to publish in. They contact the journal during the manuscript submission, peer review, and eventual publication process while ensuring all the journal's administrative requirements. The corresponding author usually makes themselves available to respond to editorial queries throughout the process. They should also be available after publication to respond to critiques of the work, and any questions that arise, and to cooperate with requests for additional data or information.

What does a 'corresponding author' do?

This corresponding author is:

  • Responsible for the manuscript as it moves through the entire publication process
  • The "timekeeper" during each phase of the publication process
  • The primary contact between the journal and all the other authors of the paper
  • Responsible for ensuring that all authors have reviewed and approved the final version of the manuscript before submission
  • The person who uploads the manuscript to the online submission site or sends it to the journal for peer review
  • Responsible for distributing communications from the journal (e.g., decision letters, and reviewers' reports).

How to write an "Authors' Contribution"?

An authorship statement is required for every manuscript submitted and should state who has contributed to the planning, conduct, and reporting of the work described in the article.

Please clarify and write who was responsible for:

  1. Study concept and design:
  2. Acquisition of data:
  3. Analysis and interpretation of data:
  4. Drafting of the manuscript:
  5. Critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content:
  6. Statistical analysis:
  7. Administrative, technical, and material support:
  8. Study supervision:

Authors must write their names only with the first name and surname's first letter. To ensure that article referees or peer reviewers do not know your identity (as author[s] of the manuscript being reviewed), submitted files (i.e., Full Manuscript File; Reply to Reviewers, Appendices, Figures, Abstract) that reviewers can see, should not contain authors' names or affiliations.

  • Example 1:

Author Contributions: Study concept and design: F. M., and H. E.; analysis and interpretation of data: F. M., and S. B.; drafting of the manuscript: F. M.; critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content: F. M., H. E., and S. B.; statistical analysis: H. E.

  • Example 2:

Y. K. L. developed the original idea and the protocol, abstracted and analyzed data, wrote the manuscript, and is a guarantor. D. P. and S. D. contributed to the development of the protocol, abstracted data, and prepared the manuscript.

  • Example 3:

Y. K. L. conceived and designed the evaluation and drafted the manuscript. E. O. participated in designing the evaluation, performed parts of the statistical analysis, and helped to draft the manuscript. W. M. re-evaluated the clinical data, revised the manuscript and performed the statistical analysis, and revised the manuscript. S. S. collected the clinical data, interpreted them, and revised the manuscript. Q. E. re-analyzed the clinical and statistical data and revised the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Download a sample file of "Author's Contribution."

Acknowledgments

Recognize individuals who assisted with the project. Report all grants and other support sources for the project or study, including funds from contributors, institutions, and commercial sources. Consultancies and funds paid directly to investigators must also be listed.

  • All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be covered in the acknowledgment section.
  • It should include persons who provided technical help, writing assistance, and a departmental head who only provided general support.
  • The financial and material support should also be acknowledged.

Authorship Changes

Based on our policy, we don't accept any change in the authorship, including adding or removing the authors after initial submission, except for those cases that are decided by the editorial board.

  • Only Minor changes in the authors, including any change in the order of authors, will be reviewed by the editorial board. Authors should determine the order of authorship among themselves. Also, any alterations must be clarified to the Editor/Editor-in-chief.
  • To apply a request for a minor change in the authors, please fill out the agreement form (click to download) and submit it via our support portal at https://brieflands.com/forms/support 

Dual First Authorship

If the "corresponding author" requested introducing two first authors,  Brieflands journals can provide you with "dual first authorship." It means that the two authors have contributed equally to a paper.

How to request dual first authorship?

If you submit your article with dual first authorship, inform us by submitting a ticket via our support portal or tell us during your galley proof. Note that we can accept your request before final publishing, and we don't accept any request after publishing. After confirmation of your request, a footnote will be added to the author's name, and an explanation will be given.

Just before final publishing, we can add any dual first authorship. (#367518)

Two Corresponding Authors

The mandate for a single corresponding author has been relaxed. If justified, two corresponding authors may be listed, with one author designated as the primary point of contact responsible for all communication about the manuscript and article. This person will be listed first in the corresponding author section of the published article.

Reference: https://cdn.ymaws.com/www.amwa.org/resource/resmgr/journal/spotlight/2019v34n1_new_ama_style.pdf

Collaborating Authors

Definition: The "collaborator authors" (or non-author contributors) are the contributors who do not meet full authorship criteria but should still be listed in an article as "collaborators".

"When submitting a manuscript authored by a group, the corresponding author should specify the group name if one exists, and clearly identify the group members who can take credit and responsibility for the work as authors. The byline of the article identifies who is directly responsible for the manuscript, and MEDLINE lists as authors whichever names appear on the byline. If the byline includes a group name, MEDLINE will list the names of individual group members who are authors or who are collaborators, sometimes called non-author contributors, if there is a note associated with the byline clearly stating that the individual names are elsewhere in the paper and whether those names are authors or collaborators." (reference)

We apply these regulations in a manuscript with more than 10 authors:

  1. There are two types of contributors in the articles with more than 10 contributors:
  2. It is the corresponding author's responsibility to identify authors and collaborators during the early submission.
  3. In the case of a group of authors from a company or department, we choose this type of author (collaborator). This type of author is not an individual author.
  4. The corresponding author should explain more details in the "Authors' contributions" section and state which are authors or collaborators.
  5. "Authors' contribution" must clearly state each author's contribution. (see a sample in the above section "How to write an Author's Contribution?")
  6. "Collaborating authors" will be listed as a group in the authors' section and introduced in detail in the "Contributor Information" section at the end of the article.
  7. We use the <collab> tag when a group of authors is credited under a single name. To include all members of a collaborative author, we write their names after the text of the collective author's name.

More information:

Reference: