Authorship and Contributorship Policy

Multidisciplinary Journals (MJ)  |  e-ISSN 3047-8499

1. Criteria for Authorship

Authorship is reserved for persons who satisfy all four of the following criteria:

1. Substantial contribution: making a substantial contribution to the conception or design of the work; or to the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data, evidence, materials, or other research outputs.
2. Intellectual participation: drafting the manuscript or revising it critically for important intellectual content.
3. Final approval: approving the version submitted for review and the final version accepted for publication.
4. Accountability: agreeing to be accountable for the author's own contribution and for ensuring that questions concerning the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

2. Author List, Order, and Identification

• The authors must agree on eligibility, order, and the corresponding author before submission. The journal does not prescribe the meaning of the first, last, or other author positions.
• The author order must reflect the authors' documented agreement and must not be changed to obtain an unfair academic, professional, or financial advantage.
• Equal contribution or joint supervision may be declared through a clear contribution note when supported by the work performed.
• Each author's name, institutional affiliation, country, email address where required by OJS, and contributor role must be recorded accurately. ORCID identifiers are strongly encouraged.
• The primary affiliation should normally be the institution where the work was conducted. A current address may be added separately when appropriate.
• Honorary, gift, guest, prestige, coercive, purchased, and ghost authorship are prohibited.

3. Contributor Roles (CRediT)

Authors must provide an individual contribution statement, preferably at submission and no later than acceptance, using the CRediT Contributor Roles Taxonomy. One person may hold several roles, and one role may be shared by several people. CRediT describes contributions; it does not independently determine who qualifies as an author.

4. Responsibilities of the Corresponding Author

The corresponding author acts on behalf of all authors in administrative communication and must:

• confirm that every listed author meets the authorship criteria and that no eligible author has been omitted;
• confirm that all authors have approved the submitted and accepted versions, author order, affiliations, and contribution statement;
• ensure that the manuscript is not under concurrent consideration by another journal;
• submit complete and accurate metadata, funding information, ethics approvals, data-availability information, competing-interest disclosures, acknowledgements, and any disclosure of generative AI use;
• communicate editorial correspondence and reviewer comments promptly to every co-author; and
• cooperate with questions, corrections, or investigations before and after publication.

5. Acknowledgement of Non-Author Contributions

Persons who contributed but do not satisfy all authorship criteria should be named in the Acknowledgements, with their contribution described when appropriate. Examples include language editing, technical assistance, statistical advice, administrative support, general supervision, participant recruitment, or material provision. Authors must obtain permission from individuals whose names or identifiable contributions are acknowledged. Financial and material support must be disclosed separately in the funding statement.

6. Generative Artificial Intelligence

A generative AI system, chatbot, language model, or other automated tool must not be listed as an author or contributor because it cannot approve the manuscript, accept accountability, disclose competing interests, or hold rights and responsibilities. Any permitted use must be transparently disclosed in accordance with the journal's Generative AI Policy. Human authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, citations, confidentiality, and integrity of all submitted content.

7. Changes to Authorship

Authors should resolve authorship and author order before submission. A request to add, remove, reorder, or replace an author after submission is exceptional and must not be made solely for administrative convenience or academic advantage.

The editor may request institutional confirmation or other evidence. Approval is not automatic, and incomplete or disputed requests may be placed on hold.

8. Group Authorship and Collaborative Work

A consortium or collaborative group may be identified as an author when the submission clearly names the individuals who accept direct responsibility for the manuscript and describes the contributions of group members. At least one corresponding author must be designated. Individuals listed only as members of a study group who do not meet all authorship criteria should be presented as contributors rather than authors.

9. Editorial Independence When an Editor Is an Author

When an editor, editorial-board member, reviewer, staff member, or publisher representative is an author of a submission, that person must have no access to confidential peer-review records and no role in reviewer selection, assessment, or decision-making. The manuscript must be assigned to an independent editor, and the published article should disclose the relevant editorial relationship where appropriate.

10. Authorship Disputes and Suspected Misconduct

The journal may assess whether its published policy and procedures were followed, but it does not have the authority to adjudicate employment, intellectual-property, or institutional authorship disputes. When the parties cannot reach documented agreement, the journal may suspend processing and refer the matter to the relevant institution or another competent body.

Evidence of fabricated contributions, ghost authorship, purchased authorship, identity misuse, undisclosed manuscript-writing services, or manipulation of the author list may result in rejection, correction, referral to institutions, or another proportionate action under the journal's Publication Ethics Policy. Retraction is considered when the integrity or reliability of the published record requires it; it is not an automatic consequence of every authorship disagreement.

A complaint or appeal about the handling of an authorship matter may be submitted under the journal's Appeals and Complaints Policy.

11. Required Authorship Declaration

12. Submission Checklist