Authors should fulfil all four criteria for authorship set by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE-group at www.icmje.org). This must be stated for each author in the authorship declaration and should be submitted with the article.

The ICMJE recommends that authorship should be based on the following four criteria:

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

Contributorship


Contributors who meet fewer than all four of the above criteria for authorship should not be listed as authors, but they should be acknowledged. Those whose contributions do not justify authorship may be acknowledged individually or together as a group under a single heading.