Discover STM Publishing Ltd bases its scholarly publishing policy on the authorship and contributorship principles of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) and relevant guidance from the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). These requirements ensure that authors receive appropriate credit and accept responsibility and accountability for published work.
All four ICMJE authorship criteria must be met:
ICMJE authorship recommendations
Every author is accountable for their own contributions, should know which co-authors are responsible for specific parts of the work, and should have confidence in the integrity of those contributions. Authors must cooperate with appropriate inquiries into the accuracy or integrity of the work; responsibility for a particular contribution does not remove the shared accountability required by the ICMJE criteria.
People who do not meet all four ICMJE criteria should not be listed as authors solely for obtaining funding, general supervision, administrative support, writing or technical assistance, language editing, or proofreading. These legitimate contributions may be acknowledged with a description of the assistance. Authors should obtain appropriate permission before naming a person in an acknowledgement, since it may imply endorsement. Gift or guest authorship (listing a person who does not qualify) and ghost authorship (omitting a qualifying contributor) are unacceptable. Suspected manipulation will be assessed in context under relevant publication-ethics guidance.
Journals published or hosted by Discover STM Publishing Ltd should encourage or require a statement describing each author’s contribution, according to the individual journal’s instructions. Where appropriate, the CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy) can describe specific contributions transparently. CRediT does not determine or replace eligibility for authorship under the four ICMJE criteria. Authorship should fairly reflect qualifying work: no one should be excluded despite meeting the criteria, or added for seniority, status, funding, institutional position or courtesy alone. Qualifying local contributions in collaborative research should be assessed by the same criteria.
The corresponding author has primary responsibility for communication with the journal during submission, peer review and publication. They should coordinate an accurate author list, confirmation that all listed authors meet the requirements and have approved the manuscript, contribution information, applicable ethics and clinical-trial registration details, competing-interest and funding disclosures, and timely responses to editorial queries. They should communicate significant changes and decisions to co-authors and remain available after publication for legitimate questions about the work. These administrative duties may be shared, and all authors retain accountability for the article. For group or consortium work, the corresponding author should identify who accepts responsibility as an author and clarify collaborator or non-author roles.
The author group should normally agree collectively on author order; the journal or publisher does not determine it except where intervention is needed for a documented ethics concern. After submission, requests to add or remove an author or change author order must include an explanation and documented agreement from all relevant listed authors and the person being added or removed, as applicable. The corresponding author cannot make such changes alone. The journal may pause processing while an issue is resolved. After publication, a substantive authorship change requires documented justification and appropriate agreement; an accepted change must be made transparently through a correction rather than silently altering the published record.
The journal and publisher may review whether their stated procedures were followed, but editors generally cannot adjudicate an unresolved disagreement about who deserves authorship. If authors cannot agree, the issue should normally be referred to the relevant institution or other appropriate body; editorial or production processing may be paused. A genuine disagreement is not automatically misconduct. Suspected ghost or gift authorship, deliberate misrepresentation or fabricated contributor information may also be assessed under the publisher’s misconduct procedures and relevant COPE guidance.
AI tools, large language models, chatbots and other AI systems cannot be listed as authors or co-authors because they cannot accept responsibility or accountability for the work. Human authors remain responsible for the accuracy, integrity and originality of all submitted content, including AI-assisted material, and for citations, appropriate attribution and disclosure of relevant AI assistance. Required disclosure must follow the Ethical Policies of Discover STM Publishing Ltd and the individual journal’s instructions.
For detailed guidance, consult the following sources and policies of Discover STM Publishing Ltd:
CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy)
Ethical Policies of Discover STM Publishing Ltd
Publication Ethics and Code of Conduct
Corrections, Retractions and Allegations of Misconduct
Last reviewed: October 2026
Policy responsibility: Discover STM Publishing Ltd
