Authorship and Contributions
Verifiable attribution of authorship and contributions
This policy applies from submission through post-publication and distinguishes authorship, acknowledged contribution, and technical support. Authorship requires substantial contribution, final approval, and accountability; position, funding, general supervision, or affiliation alone are insufficient.
The corresponding author coordinates documents and responses, but all authors confirm order, affiliations, CRediT roles, conflicts, and the final version. The editor verifies documentation and refers unresolved credit or ownership disputes to the competent institutions.
Criteria
Authorship is limited to people who made substantial contributions to conception, design, data collection or analysis, tool development, drafting, or critical revision; approved the final version; and accept accountability for the work.
CRediT statement
Individual contributions must be disclosed through the CRediT taxonomy. Funding acquisition, general supervision, or administrative support alone do not justify authorship and may be acknowledged with consent.
Changes and disputes
Any addition, removal, or change in order requires justification and written consent from all authors. Processing is suspended during a dispute until a documented resolution is received. Guest, honorary, and ghost authorship are prohibited.
Individual and collective accountability
Each author must be able to identify and stand behind their contribution. All authors share a duty to investigate integrity concerns and cooperate with corrections. The corresponding author coordinates communication, confirms that every author approved submission, and keeps contact details current; this role does not confer greater scholarly credit.
The journal requests standardized names, the institutional affiliation relevant to the work, email, and ORCID where available. Affiliations must reflect where the research was performed and may not be added to imply institutional endorsement.
Disclosure and verification
The CRediT statement must assign genuine roles—such as conceptualization, methodology, analysis, investigation, data curation, writing, or supervision—without inflating participation. One person may hold several roles and one role may be shared. Author order is agreed by the authors and is not determined by the journal.
People providing technical help, translation, access, administrative support, or advice without meeting authorship criteria are acknowledged with consent. Artificial-intelligence assistance is disclosed under the specific policy and is never listed as authorship.
Changes and disputes
Before acceptance, every requested change must explain the reason and include written agreement from those being added, removed, or reordered. After acceptance, changes are exceptional and require documentation; after publication, an approved change requires a linked correction.
The journal does not arbitrate intellectual-property or credit disputes. If agreement is absent, processing is suspended pending institutional resolution. Forged consent, deliberate omission of authors, or honorary authorship may result in rejection and institutional notification.
Managing authorship declarations and changes
Record names, affiliations, ORCID, email, and corresponding author in OJS.
Submit a specific CRediT statement consistent with methods and acknowledgements.
Obtain consent from people named in acknowledgements.
Document every authorship change with reasons and written approval from all authors.
Suspend processing when a dispute remains unresolved and request institutional resolution.
Publish a correction when a justified change occurs after publication.
Documenting contributions and agreements
An approved authorship file and CRediT statement.
Final-version confirmation by every author.
Consent and correspondence concerning authorship changes.
Authorship corrections linked to the article where applicable.
Documented resolution of authorship changes
Every request to add, remove, or reorder authors after submission shall explain the reason and include verifiable agreement from affected contributors. If a material contribution dispute persists, the journal shall suspend the requested change and seek an authoritative institutional determination; editors shall not independently adjudicate contested ownership of contributions.
Handling authorship disputes
The journal samples CRediT statements to detect honorary, ghost, or inconsistent authorship. Irregularities may stop processing, cause rejection, or require institutional contact; the journal does not adjudicate credit disputes without consensus or institutional evidence.
Verifiable institutional identity and scholarly attribution
Affiliations must reflect the university unit or research center where work was actually undertaken, not an institution added for prestige or bibliometric convenience. In inter-university research, CRediT roles must reflect actual conceptual, data, analytical, supervisory, project management and writing contributions; administrative authority does not itself confer authorship.
When a thesis or postgraduate project underlies a submission, provenance and authorship should be settled before submission, avoiding honorary supervisor authorship and exclusion of junior researchers. Consent from all authors is recorded for changes of order, additions or removals.
Assessment of authorship changes
Adding, removing or reordering authors after submission requires reasons and documented consent from all currently listed authors and those being added or removed. Processing may be suspended while a dispute remains unresolved. The editor will not settle an institutional intellectual-property dispute solely on the corresponding author’s account and may request input from relevant institutions.
Contributions and accountability
CRediT identifies performed roles but does not, by itself, confer authorship. Each author must have made a substantial intellectual contribution, reviewed and approved the final work, and accepted accountability for their work and the integrity of the publication. Technical support, funding alone and general advice are acknowledged rather than automatically converted into authorship.
