Authorship Criteria

Authorship Criteria

Edukids follows the authorship recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) and the guidance of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). This page explains who qualifies as an author, how contributions are reported, and how authorship changes and disputes are handled.

1. Who Qualifies as an Author

A person is listed as an author only if they meet all four of the following criteria:

  • made a substantial contribution to the conception or design of the study, or to the collection, analysis, or interpretation of data;

  • drafted the manuscript or revised it critically for important intellectual content;

  • approved the final version to be published; and

  • agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work and to make sure that questions about its accuracy or integrity are properly investigated and resolved.

Securing funding, supervising a research group in general, providing administrative support, collecting data alone, or giving language editing does not by itself qualify a person for authorship.

2. Contributors Who Are Not Authors

  • People who contributed but do not meet all four criteria, such as teachers, school staff, data collectors, language editors, or technical assistants, are named in the Acknowledgments with their permission.

  • Children, parents, and teachers who took part as research participants are not named.

3. Unacceptable Authorship Practices

  • Guest or gift authorship: listing someone who did not meet the criteria, for example because of seniority or position.

  • Ghost authorship: leaving out someone who meets the criteria, including a professional writer.

  • Generative AI as author: AI tools cannot be authors because they cannot take responsibility for the work. Their use must be disclosed in the Declarations section in line with the Edukids AI Policy.

4. Reporting Contributions

  • Each author's role is stated in the Declarations section using the CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy), for example Conceptualization, Methodology, Investigation, Formal analysis, Writing – original draft, and Writing – review & editing.

  • The order of authors is a joint decision of all authors, who must be able to explain it.

  • For a manuscript based on a student's thesis, the student is normally the first author, and supervisors are listed only if they meet the criteria above.

5. Corresponding Author

The corresponding author:

  • communicates with the journal throughout submission, review, and publication;

  • makes sure that all authors have seen and approved the manuscript and agree to its submission;

  • makes sure that the author list, affiliations, and contribution statements are correct and complete; and

  • remains available after publication to answer questions about the article.

6. Changes to Authorship

  • The author list should be final at submission.

  • Any addition, removal, or reordering of authors after submission must be requested by the corresponding author in writing, with a reason, and signed by all authors, including any author being added or removed. The change takes effect only after the editor approves it.

  • Changes are not accepted after the article has been accepted, except in exceptional cases approved by the editor-in-chief.

  • After publication, authorship can only be changed through a published correction.

7. Authorship Disputes

  • Edukids does not decide who deserves authorship. When a dispute arises, the editor pauses the process and asks the authors to settle it among themselves.

  • If the authors cannot agree, the editor follows the COPE flowcharts and refers the matter to the authors' institution. The manuscript does not proceed until the dispute is resolved.

  • If an authorship problem is found after publication, the journal may publish a correction, an expression of concern, or a retraction.