Authorship and contributorship

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Authorship requires all four of the following (ICMJE):

1. Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work, or to the acquisition, analysis or interpretation of data for it; and
2. Drafting the work, or reviewing it critically for important intellectual content; and
3. Final approval of the version to be published; and
4. Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work, in ensuring that questions about the accuracy or integrity of any part of it are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Anyone meeting all four must be listed. Anyone not meeting all four must not be. Note that criterion 1 has two branches: contributing data or analysis alone can satisfy it. Criterion 4 is not a formality — it is the reason software cannot be an author.

Guest, gift and ghost authorship are misconduct, not courtesy.

Every submission records CRediT contributor roles for each author (Contributor Roles Taxonomy, ANSI/NISO Z39.104–2022, 14 roles). The corresponding author warrants that all listed authors have approved the submission and the author order.

Changes to authorship after submission require written agreement from every author, including any being added or removed, and the handling editor's approval. Changes after publication require a published correction.