Authorship

1. Authorship

Authorship Criteria

Authorship should be limited to individuals who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported research. To qualify as an author, an individual should meet all of the following criteria:

• Substantial contribution to the conception or design of the work, or 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, ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved

All individuals meeting these criteria should be listed as authors, and all listed authors must meet these criteria. Individuals who contributed to the work but do not meet the full authorship criteria (for example, those who provided technical assistance, general supervision, or administrative support) should be acknowledged separately rather than listed as authors.

Corresponding Author

One author is designated as the corresponding author and is responsible for communicating with the journal throughout the submission, review, and production process on behalf of all co-authors. The corresponding author confirms that all listed authors have approved the final manuscript and agree to its submission.

Order of Authorship

The order in which authors are listed should be agreed upon by all co-authors prior to submission and should reflect their relative contributions, according to a convention agreed upon by the author group.

Changes to Authorship

Any change to the author list — including addition, removal, or reordering of authors — after initial submission must be approved by all authors (including any author being removed) and clearly explained to the editorial office. Requests for authorship changes after publication are treated as a correction request and handled in accordance with the journal's Corrections and Retraction Policy.

Author Identification

Authors are encouraged to provide an ORCID iD at submission, to ensure accurate and persistent attribution of their published work across the scholarly record.

Disputes

Authorship disputes should be resolved by the authors themselves prior to submission. Where a dispute arises after submission or publication, the journal will request that the authors' institution(s) assist in resolving the matter, consistent with Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidance.

Artificial Intelligence and Authorship

Generative AI tools and other non-human contributors cannot be listed as authors, as they cannot take responsibility for the work or provide consent to publication. See the AI Policy for further detail.