Authorship and Contributorship

Authorship
All individuals listed as authors should have made a significant intellectual contribution to the work, including:

• Conception or design of the study, or acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data;
• Drafting or critically revising the manuscript for important intellectual content;
• Approving the final version of the manuscript to be published;
• Agreeing to be accountable for all aspects of the work, ensuring that questions related to accuracy or integrity are appropriately investigated and resolved.

All persons meeting these criteria should be included as authors. Individuals who do not meet these criteria should be acknowledged appropriately but not listed as authors.

Contributorship
Journals encourage transparency regarding the specific contributions of each author. Contributors may include those involved in:

• Study design and methodology
• Data collection, analysis, and interpretation
• Writing, editing, and reviewing the manuscript
• Supervision or project administration

A detailed statement of author contributions may be published alongside the article to ensure transparency and proper credit.

Changes to Authorship
Any changes to authorship, including adding, removing, or rearranging authors, must be approved by all authors and explained to the editor before publication.

Ethical Considerations
Ghost authorship (unacknowledged contributions) and guest or honorary authorship (listing individuals who did not contribute significantly) are unethical and must be avoided.