Authorship

Listing authors names on an article is an important mechanism to give credit to those who have significantly contributed to the work. It also ensures transparency for those who are responsible for the integrity of the content.

Authors listed on an article must meet all of the following criteria:

1. Made a significant contribution to the work reported, whether that is in the conception, study design, execution, acquisition of data, analysis and interpretation, or in all these areas.
2. Have drafted or written, or substantially revised or critically reviewed the article.
3. Have agreed on the journal to which the article will be submitted.
4. Reviewed and agreed on all versions of the article before submission, during revision, the final version accepted for publication, and any significant changes introduced at the proofing stage.
5. Agree to take responsibility and be accountable for the contents of the article.

Authors declaration and warranties

By submitting any research article for the purposes of publication by Dove Medical Press Limited the authors must certify and warrant that:

The submitting author has been authorised by all co-authors to submit the research article; and

1. They are the sole author(s) of the article and are legally able and entitled to submit the article and authorise Dove Medical Press (DMP) to publish the research article. If the law requires that the article be published in the public domain, the author(s) will notify DMP at the time of submission.
2. The research article is original, has not already been published in any other journal (medical, or otherwise) or is not currently under consideration for publication by another journal, and does not infringe any existing copyright or any other rights prescribed by law;
3. The article contains nothing that is unlawful, defamatory, or which would, if published, constitute a breach of contract or of confidentiality;
4. Due care, diligence and all other requisite investigations were carried out in the preparation of the research article(s) to ensure its accuracy. To the best of their knowledge all statements contained in it purporting to be factual are true and correct.

Large multicentre groups

When a large, multicentre group has conducted the work, the group should identify the individuals who accept direct responsibility for the manuscript. These individuals should fully meet the criteria for authorship defined above, and all those who qualify should be listed. Editors will ask these individuals to complete journal-specific author and competing interest’s disclosure forms. When submitting a manuscript authored by a group, the corresponding or contact author should clearly indicate the preferred citation and identify all individual authors as well as the group name. Journals generally list other members of the group in the Acknowledgments. The National Library of Medicine (NLM) indexes the group name and the names of individuals the group has identified as being directly responsible for the manuscript; it also lists the names of collaborators (no affiliations) if they are listed in a section headed Collaborators.
The group should jointly make decisions about contributors/authors before submitting the manuscript for publication. The corresponding or contact author should be prepared to explain the presence and order of these individuals. It is not the role of editors to make authorship/contributorship decisions or to arbitrate conflicts related to authorship.

Corresponding or contact author

Prior to submission, the authorship list and order must be agreed between all listed authors, and they must also agree on who will take on the role of corresponding or contact author. It is the responsibility of the corresponding or contact author to reach consensus with all co-authors regarding all aspects of the article including the authorship order and to ensure all correct affiliations have been listed. The corresponding or contact author is also responsible for liaising with co-authors regarding any editorial queries, and to act on behalf of all co-authors in any communication about the article through submission, peer review, production, and after publication. The corresponding or contact author is also responsible for signing the publishing agreement on behalf of all the listed authors.

AI-based tools and technologies for content generation
Authors must be aware that using AI-based tools and technologies for article content generation, e.g. large language models (LLMs), generative AI, and chatbots (e.g. ChatGPT), is not in line with our authorship criteria.

All authors are wholly responsible for the originality, validity and integrity of the content of their submissions. Therefore, LLMs and other similar types of tools do not meet the criteria for authorship.

Changes in authorship

Any changes in authorship prior to or after publication must be agreed upon by all authors, including those being added or removed. It is the responsibility of the corresponding author to obtain confirmation from all co-authors and to provide a full explanation about why the change was necessary. If a change in authorship is necessary after publication of the article, this will be amended via a post-publication notice. Any changes in authorship must comply with our criteria for authorship, and requests for significant changes to the authorship list after the article has been accepted, may be rejected if clear reasons and evidence of author contributions cannot be provided.

Assistance from scientific, technical or medical writers

Contributions made by professional scientific or medical writers, or anyone who has assisted with the manuscript content must be acknowledged and their source of funding declared. They should be included in an ‘Acknowledgments’ section with an explanation of their role, or they should be included in the author list if appropriate. Authors are advised to consult the joint position statement from American Medical Writers Association (AMWA), European Medical Writers Association (EMWA) and International Society of Medical Publication Professionals (ISMPP).

Assistance with experiments and data analysis

Any significant contribution to work reported should be appropriately credited according to our authorship criteria. If any parts of the work have been outsourced to professional laboratories or data analysts, this should be clearly stated within the manuscript with an explanation of their role, or they should be included in the author list if appropriate. Authors are responsible for retaining all of the original data related to their work, and should be prepared to share it with the journal editorial office if requested.

Acknowledgments

Any individuals who have contributed to the article (e.g. general supervision, acquisition of funding, study design, data collection, data analysis, technical assistance, formatting-related writing assistance, scholarly discussions which significantly contributed to developing the article, etc), but who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed by name and affiliation in an ‘Acknowledgments’ section. It is the responsibility of the authors to notify and obtain permission from those they wish to identify in this section. The process of obtaining permission should include sharing the article, so that those being identified can verify the context in which their contribution is being acknowledged.

Groups of persons who have contributed materially to the article but whose contributions do not justify authorship may be listed under such headings as “clinical investigators” or “participating investigators,” and their function or contribution should be described - for example, “served as scientific advisors,” “critically reviewed the study proposal,” “collected data,” or “provided and cared for study patients.” Because readers may infer their endorsement of the data and conclusions, these persons must give written permission to be acknowledged.

Any assistance from AI tools for content generation (e.g. large language models) and other similar types of technical tools which generate article content, must be clearly acknowledged within the article. It is the responsibility of authors to ensure the validity, originality and integrity of their article content. Authors are expected to use these types of tools responsibly and in accordance with our editorial policies on authorship and principles of publishing ethics.

Affiliations

Authors must list all relevant affiliations to attribute where the research was approved and/or supported and/or conducted. For non-research articles, authors must list their current institutional affiliation. In cases where an author has moved to a different institution before the article has been published, they should list the affiliation where the work was conducted, and the current affiliation and contact details should be listed in the acknowledgment section. Change of affiliation alone is not a valid reason to remove an author from a publication if he or she meets the authorship criteria.

Author name changes on published articles

There are many reasons why an author may change their name in the course of their career and wish to update their published articles to reflect this change, without publicly announcing this through a corrigendum. Dove Medical Press (DMP) will update journal articles where an author makes a request for their own name change, full or partial, without the requirement for an accompanying corrigendum. Any pronouns in accompanying author bios and declaration statements will also be updated as part of the name change, if required.
When you request a name change, DMP will:

• Change the metadata associated with the article on our Dovepress platform
• Update the HTML and PDF version of the article;
• Resupply the new metadata and article content to any abstracting and indexing services that have agreements with the journal. (Note that such services may have their own bibliographic policies regarding author name changes. DMP cannot be held responsible for controlling updates to articles on third party sites and services once an article has been disseminated).

If you wish a corrigendum to be published alongside your name change DMP will accommodate this on request, but it is not required for an author name change to be made
To request a name change please contact DMP using the Contact Dovepress form.
DMP consider it a breach of publication ethics to request a name change for an individual without their explicit consent.

Please note, the above policy is intended for name changes only and is not applicable to the correction of errors such as missing hyphens or spelling errors.

Common authorship issues

Number of authors
Consideration should be given to the number of qualified authors needed to take responsibility for the publication. To some extent, this will depend on the complexity of the research and of the publication, but it would be unusual in biomedical research (with few exceptions) to require >10 authors to meet this need. A high number of authors calls into question whether they could all have provided "substantial intellectual contribution." Fewer authors are often preferable, and others can be acknowledged (e.g., as nonauthor contributors or collaborators).

Author sequence
Authors should decide how this will be determined at the initiation of the work, including the designation of the lead and corresponding authors, who may or may not be the same person. Final order, however, should be based on authors' actual roles and contributions in the development of the publication (and therefore cannot be agreed upon until this in complete). Those who made the greatest contribution are generally listed first, but alphabetical order may also be used. It may be useful to describe in the contributorship section of the publication whether alphabetical order or some other convention was used to determine author order.

Death or incapacity of an author
Should an author die after completing a major part of the work, posthumous authorship can be considered if agreed to by all other authors. We suggest, as a first step, seeking advice on correct attribution and process from journal instructions or the editorial office.
If the journal agrees to posthumous authorship but requires submission forms to be signed, then in the case of a sponsor-employed author or a contractor, a supervisor may be the most appropriate proxy. Otherwise, a family member or person with power of attorney should be approached. In all cases, efforts should be made to contact the family of the deceased author to inform them of the intention and request their consent to the listing or acknowledgment.

Company- or sponsor-employed authors
Sponsor-employed scientists and clinicians are often qualified to participate as authors of company-sponsored research publications and should have that opportunity. Such authors should not be denied authorship because of concerns about perception of bias. Whatever criteria are used to determine authorship should be applied equally to company employees, contractors, and others.

Please note: Parts of the Authorship section are reprinted or adapted from the ICMJE Defining the Role of Authors and Contributors. Dove Medical Press prepared this reprint. The ICMJE has not endorsed nor approved the contents of this reprint. The official version of the Defining the Role of Authors and Contributors is located at the ICMJE website. Users should cite this official version when citing the document.

The "Authorship: Common issues" section was adapted from Battisti WP, Wager E, Baltzer L, Bridges D, Cairns A, Carswell CI, et al. Good Publication Practice for Communicating Company-Sponsored Medical Research: GPP3. Ann Intern Med. 2015;163:461-464. doi:10.7326/M15-0288 Appendix Table 2. Common Issues About Authorship.

Updated 6 October 2023