Who Qualifies for Authorship or an Acknowledgment
Manuscripts are often a collaborative effort. They require hard work and dedication from several people, who each deserve credit for their contributions. This credit is given through authorship.
But authorship carries more weight than just contribution. It also indicates who is responsible and accountable for the published work. In this way, authorship should be given to contributors who have made substantive intellectual contributions to a manuscript and who are willing to be responsible and accountable for what is published.
Who should be given authorship?
The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) has developed criteria for authorship. According to the ICMJE, each author should fulfill all four of the following 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 reviewing 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.
To help ensure that all authors meet these four criteria, some journals ask for and publish a description of what contributions each author made to the manuscript. This description makes it more difficult for authors to give honorary authorship, an unethical practice in research.
Some journals and academic disciplines have different standards for substantive contributions that would dictate authorship. If you are not sure whether to give authorship for a particular manuscript, check the author guidelines for the journal.
Who should be given an acknowledgment?
Contributors who do not meet all four criteria should be acknowledged. For example, those who contribute funding, research materials, lab management, administrative support, or editing assistance may not fulfill all four criteria. In these cases, you can thank these contributors in the acknowledgments section.
When acknowledging others, be sure to specify each contributor’s name and specific contributions (eg, “provided funding,” “critically reviewed the manuscript,” “collected data”). Also, because an acknowledgment may imply endorsement of the work, some journals also require that you get written permission from the named contributor before including their name in the acknowledgments.
Does the order of authorship matter?
Now that you know who should be given authorship, you can indicate the level of each author’s contribution by choosing the order in which the authors appear on the manuscript. Remember to ensure that all authors agree on the order before you submit.
