Authorship Responsibility
Each author should have made a substantive contribution to the conception, design, conduct, analysis, interpretation, or scholarly preparation of the work; approve the submitted and final versions; and accept appropriate accountability for accuracy, integrity, ethical compliance, and conclusions.
Author Order and Corresponding Author
Authors should agree the order before submission and resolve disputes among themselves or through their institutions. The corresponding author coordinates communication, confirms that author information and declarations are complete, circulates decisions and proofs, and does not assume sole ownership of the other authors’ responsibilities.
Group Authorship
Where a group or consortium is named, the submission should distinguish named authors who accept authorship accountability from other collaborators, and provide a contributor list suitable for the article and metadata where applicable.
Contributorship and Acknowledgements
Contributor roles should describe who did what where appropriate. Contributions that do not justify authorship should be acknowledged accurately and with permission where required. Guest, gift, honorary, and ghost authorship obscure responsibility and are not acceptable.
Artificial Intelligence
AI tools cannot be authors or co-authors because they cannot assume responsibility, approve publication, disclose conflicts, or be accountable.
Authorship Changes
Additions, removals, or changes in author order after submission or acceptance require editorial review, a clear explanation, and appropriate agreement from affected authors.