Principles and recommendations

Recommendations for describing author's contribution

Contributor Roles Taxonomy (CRediT) is a useful tool for identifying the contributions of all authors to a manuscript. The corresponding author is responsible for the accuracy of the descriptions and for ensuring that they are agreed upon by all authors. Authors may have participated in different roles and made multiple contributions. Conversely, a single role may be performed by multiple co-authors.

Some roles do not apply – each research result is individual; if specific CRediT roles are not relevant to a particular result, they do not need to be included.

The roles of all authors should be listed using the appropriate categories shown in CRediT.

It should be noted that authors are considered to be individuals who have made a significant contribution to the development of the publication, prepared the work or critically reviewed it in terms of the importance of its intellectual content, participated in the approval of the manuscript for publication, and agreed to take responsibility for all aspects of the work, ensuring proper investigation and resolution of issues related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work.

If individuals who participated in the research but did not participate in the preparation of the publication, or do not meet the above criteria for authorship, then they should be mentioned in the “Acknowledgements” section. It is expected that individuals mentioned in this section have given their consent to the publication of their names.

 

Responsibilities of the corresponding author

The corresponding author bears responsibility and acts on behalf of all authors.

Before publishing an article:

• must ensure that the manuscript complies with editorial and publication policies;
• must ensure that all authors have access to the final version of the manuscript before it is submitted to the editorial board of the journal, have agreed to the list of authors and their contributions;
• must ensure that all authors are familiar with the final version of the manuscript before it is published.

After publication of the article:

• continues to be the contact person for questions regarding the published article;
• informs all co-authors of any issues that arise and ensures their timely resolution.

 

Conflict of interest

All authors must disclose any financial and personal relationships with other individuals or organizations that may inappropriately influence their work or distort it. Examples of potential conflicts of interest include:

• employment;
• consulting services;
• stock ownership;
• honoraria;
• paid expert testimony;
• patent applications or registrations;
• grants or other funding;
• affiliation with the journal as an editor or member of the advisory board.

Authors who have no conflicts of interest should state that they have none.

 

Sources of funding

Authors should disclose any sources of funding that provided financial support for the research and/or preparation of the article. The role of sponsors, if any, should be stated in relation to the conduct of the research, collection, analysis, and interpretation of data, writing of the report, and decision to submit the article for publication. If funding sources did not participate in this way, this should be stated in your submitted article.

It is not necessary to include a detailed description of the program or type of grants, scholarships, and awards. If funding is provided through a block grant or other resources available to a university, college, or other research institution, indicate the name of the institution or organization that provided the funding.

If no funding was provided for the research, it is recommended to include the following sentence: 

“This research did not receive any specific grants from funding organizations in the public, commercial, or non-commercial sectors.”

 

Acknowledgements

In this section, you can express gratitude for any support that is not covered in the sections on author contributions or funding. It may include administrative and technical support, as well as in-kind donations (e.g., materials used for experiments). It should be noted that the consent of the persons to whom the authors wish to express gratitude is required to mention their names.