Authorship and Contributorship

1. Introduction

Authorship provides scholarly credit and carries responsibility and accountability for published work. The International Journal of Advanced Science Computing and Engineering (IJASCE) is committed to ensuring that authorship accurately reflects substantial intellectual contributions and that individuals who contributed to a work are appropriately recognized.

IJASCE adopts the authorship criteria of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) as its operational criteria for authorship. The journal also follows the COPE Core Practice on Authorship and Contributorship, which emphasizes transparent authorship requirements, clear contributor roles, appropriate acknowledgment of non-author contributors, and procedures for managing authorship concerns and disputes.

2. Scope

This policy applies to all manuscripts submitted to and published by IJASCE and to all individuals identified as authors, contributors, collaborators, or acknowledged persons.

The policy covers authorship eligibility, contributorship statements, corresponding author responsibilities, author order, group authorship, acknowledgment of non-author contributions, use of artificial intelligence in relation to authorship, authorship changes, and the handling of authorship disputes or suspected authorship misconduct.

3. Authorship Criteria

IJASCE requires an individual listed as an author to satisfy all four of the following criteria:

  1. Make substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work.

  2. Draft the manuscript or revise it critically for important intellectual content.

  3. Approve the final version to be published.

  4. Agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work by helping ensure that questions relating to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately addressed.

Individuals who meet the first criterion should be given an appropriate opportunity to participate in drafting or critically revising the manuscript, approving the final version, and accepting accountability so that legitimate contributors are not unfairly excluded from authorship.

Activities such as obtaining funding, providing general supervision, routine data collection, providing administrative support, supplying facilities or equipment, or performing language editing do not, by themselves, qualify an individual for authorship.

3.1 Authorship Must Reflect Actual Contribution

IJASCE does not permit guest, gift, honorary, or ghost authorship.

  • Guest or gift authorship occurs when an individual is listed as an author despite not meeting the journal's authorship criteria, including situations in which a person's name is added because of seniority, reputation, position, institutional influence, or expectation of reciprocal benefit.

  • Ghost authorship occurs when an individual who made a contribution sufficient to qualify for authorship is omitted from the author list or when a substantial contributor's role is intentionally concealed.

All persons listed as authors must qualify for authorship, and all persons who qualify for authorship should be included.

3.2 Author Contribution Statements

IJASCE requires authors to provide a statement describing the contribution of each author. The contribution statement should be submitted with the manuscript and, where technically supported, published with the article.

Authors are encouraged to use the CRediT Contributor Roles Taxonomy to describe contributions such as conceptualization, methodology, software, validation, formal analysis, investigation, resources, data curation, writing, visualization, supervision, project administration, and funding acquisition.

CRediT describes the nature of an individual's contribution but does not determine authorship eligibility. A contributor role alone does not automatically qualify a person as an author. Individuals listed as authors must independently satisfy IJASCE's authorship criteria.

Likewise, contribution statements must not be used to conceal contributors who should have been included as authors or to justify authorship for individuals whose contributions do not meet the journal's criteria.

3.3 Responsibility and Accountability of Authors

Each author is responsible for the integrity of their own contribution and should be able to identify which co-authors are responsible for other specific parts of the work.

All authors share responsibility for ensuring that concerns relating to the accuracy or integrity of the work are appropriately addressed. Authors must cooperate with reasonable editorial inquiries concerning the manuscript or published article.

All authors must review and approve the final manuscript before submission and must approve the final version intended for publication.

3.4 Corresponding Author Responsibilities

At least one author must be designated as the corresponding author. The corresponding author serves as the primary administrative contact between the author group and IJASCE but does not acquire greater authorship status merely by holding this role.

The corresponding author is responsible for:

  • managing communication with the journal during submission, peer review, revision, production, and post-publication correspondence;

  • ensuring that all listed authors have reviewed and approved the submitted manuscript;

  • ensuring that all authors are aware of and agree with the author list and author order;

  • coordinating complete and accurate authorship, contributorship, funding, competing interests, ethics, data availability, and other required declarations;

  • communicating editorial decisions and requests to all co-authors where appropriate;

  • ensuring that all authors approve the final version to be published; and

  • remaining available, where reasonably possible, to coordinate responses to questions concerning the work after publication.

The corresponding author must not make material changes to the manuscript, author list, declarations, or responses to the journal without appropriate agreement from the relevant co-authors.

3.5 Author Order and Equal Contributions

IJASCE does not determine the order of authors. The author group is responsible for agreeing on author order before submission and for ensuring that the order accurately reflects their agreed attribution of contribution.

Where two or more authors contributed equally, this may be stated in an author contribution statement or appropriate article note where supported by the journal's publication format.

Disagreements concerning author order should be resolved among the authors and, when necessary, through their institution or institutions. Editors are not normally in a position to adjudicate competing claims concerning the relative importance of individual contributions.

3.6 Group or Consortium Authorship

Where research is conducted by a consortium, collaboration, or other research group, a group name may be used in the byline when appropriate to the work and publication format.

The submission must nevertheless provide sufficient information to identify the individuals who take responsibility for the work and to distinguish qualifying authors from other contributors where appropriate.

Individuals identified as authors within a group or consortium remain subject to the same authorship, accountability, disclosure, and competing interest requirements that apply to individually named authors.

3.7 Acknowledgment of Non-Author Contributors

Individuals who contributed to the work but do not satisfy all authorship criteria should not be listed as authors. Their contributions may instead be recognized in the Acknowledgments or contributor statement.

Examples may include individuals who provided:

  • technical or laboratory assistance;

  • routine data collection;

  • administrative or project support;

  • language editing or proofreading;

  • general supervision that did not meet the authorship criteria;

  • access to facilities or equipment; or

  • other assistance that does not qualify for authorship.

The nature of the contribution should be described where appropriate. Individuals who are named in an acknowledgment should have agreed to being identified because acknowledgment may imply their association with the work.

3.8 Artificial Intelligence and Authorship

Artificial intelligence systems, large language models, chatbots, and other AI tools cannot be listed as authors or co-authors of manuscripts submitted to IJASCE.

Authorship requires responsibility, accountability, approval of the submitted and published work, and the ability to respond to questions regarding its integrity. AI systems cannot fulfill these responsibilities.

Human authors remain fully responsible for material generated, modified, analyzed, or otherwise assisted by AI tools. Reportable use of AI must be disclosed in accordance with the IJASCE AI Tools Usage Policy.

3.9 Changes in Authorship Before Publication

Requests to add, remove, replace, or reorder authors after initial submission must be accompanied by a clear explanation of the reason for the change.

The journal normally requires written agreement from:

  • all currently listed authors;

  • any author being added;

  • any author being removed; and

  • the corresponding author.

The journal may suspend editorial processing while an authorship change is being clarified. Approval by IJASCE indicates that the administrative requirements for the change have been satisfied; it does not constitute an institutional determination of the relative contributions of the individuals involved.

If agreement cannot be obtained or an authorship dispute arises, IJASCE may refer the authors to their institution or institutions for resolution before the editorial process continues.

3.10 Authorship Changes After Publication

Requests to add, remove, or reorder authors after publication require careful assessment because they alter the published scholarly record.

When all relevant parties agree and adequate evidence supports the requested change, IJASCE may issue an appropriate correction identifying the authorship amendment.

When the requested change is disputed, the journal will not normally determine which individual deserves authorship solely on the basis of competing claims. The journal may request that the relevant institution or institutions review the matter and will consider appropriate correction of the published record after receiving reliable evidence or an institutional determination.

An authorship correction does not automatically imply research misconduct. The correction notice should describe the change transparently without making unsupported statements concerning culpability.

4. Authorship Disputes and Concerns

IJASCE distinguishes between an authorship dispute, in which contributors disagree about attribution, qualification, or author order, and a possible authorship integrity concern, such as deliberate guest, gift, ghost, or fraudulent authorship.

Editors may request contribution statements, correspondence, author declarations, or other information needed to understand an authorship concern. However, editors generally do not have access to the evidence necessary to determine competing claims concerning who performed research or the relative significance of individual contributions.

When the authors cannot resolve a dispute, IJASCE may refer the matter to the appropriate institution or institutions. Institutional determination may be required before the journal changes the author list or published scholarly record.

Concerns indicating deliberate authorship misrepresentation may also be handled under the journal's Allegations of Misconduct Policy and relevant COPE guidance.

5. Responsibilities

Authors are responsible for ensuring that authorship accurately reflects qualifying contributions, for agreeing on the author list and order, for providing accurate contribution statements, and for notifying the journal promptly if an authorship concern arises.

The corresponding author is responsible for coordinating authorship-related communication and ensuring that co-authors are appropriately informed and have provided required approvals and declarations.

Editors are responsible for applying the journal's authorship policy consistently, requesting clarification when concerns arise, protecting the integrity of the publication process, and referring disputes or potential misconduct to appropriate institutions or other competent bodies when necessary.

Reviewers should confidentially inform the editor when they identify a potential authorship or contributorship concern. Reviewers should not contact authors directly about such concerns.

Institutions may be asked to resolve disputed claims concerning contributions or to investigate suspected authorship misconduct when the matter requires evidence or authority beyond that available to the journal.

6. Handling Breaches and Post-Publication Action

Potential guest, gift, honorary, ghost, fraudulent, or otherwise inappropriate authorship will be assessed in accordance with this policy, the IJASCE Allegations of Misconduct Policy, and relevant COPE guidance.

Depending on the circumstances, actions may include:

  • requesting clarification or revised contribution statements;

  • correcting the author list before publication when the appropriate parties agree;

  • suspending consideration of a manuscript while an unresolved authorship concern is addressed;

  • referring an unresolved dispute or serious integrity concern to the relevant institution or institutions;

  • rejecting a manuscript when a serious unresolved authorship integrity concern prevents reliable editorial consideration;

  • publishing an authorship correction after publication;

  • publishing an expression of concern when a serious unresolved matter materially affects confidence in the published record; or

  • taking other post-publication action when warranted by the reliability or integrity of the article and relevant COPE guidance.

An authorship problem does not automatically require retraction. Retraction will be considered only when the circumstances affecting authorship are associated with broader problems that meet the journal's criteria for retraction or otherwise substantially undermine the integrity or reliability of the published article.

IJASCE does not treat punitive sanctions as the primary purpose of authorship policy. Where formal disciplinary action concerning researcher conduct is required, responsibility ordinarily rests with the relevant institution or competent authority.

7. Related Policies and References

8. Review and Updates

This policy was reviewed in September 2026. IJASCE will review and update the policy periodically in response to developments in COPE guidance, recognized authorship and contributorship standards, and the journal's editorial practices.