Authorship and Contributorship Policy

Authorship Criteria

An individual qualifies as an author if they have made a substantial contribution to all of the following:

• The conception or design of the research, or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data.
• The drafting or critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content.
• The final approval of the version to be published.
• The agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

All four criteria must be met. Individuals who contributed to the research but do not meet these criteria should be acknowledged as contributors (e.g., for technical assistance, data collection, language editing, or financial support).

Contributorship and Acknowledgements

All authors must describe their individual contributions (e.g., study design, data analysis, writing, review).
Contributors who are not listed as authors should be acknowledged in a separate Acknowledgements section, with their consent.

Corresponding Author Responsibilities

The corresponding author is responsible for:

• Ensuring that all listed authors meet the authorship criteria.
• Managing communication between the journal and all co-authors.
• Ensuring that all co-authors approve the final manuscript before submission and publication.
• Handling any requests for corrections or retractions after publication.

Authorship Changes

Before publication: any addition, removal, or rearrangement of authors must be approved by all authors and justified in writing.

After publication: authorship changes will only be made in exceptional cases and require approval from all authors and the Editor-in-Chief.

Author Guidelines

Detailed instructions for authors are available on the journal’s website: Author Guidelines.
These guidelines provide further details on manuscript preparation, submission, and ethical standards.