Authorship & Contributorship

Accurate authorship is essential to the integrity of the scholarly record and to the fair attribution of credit and responsibility. This policy sets out who should be listed as an author on articles published in Scopapers journals and how questions about authorship are handled.

Criteria for authorship

Authorship should be reserved for those who have made a substantial contribution to the work. In line with widely adopted criteria, an author is expected to have contributed substantially to the conception or design of the work or to the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of the data; to have drafted the work or revised it critically for important intellectual content; to have approved the final version submitted; and to agree to be accountable for the work. All those who meet these criteria should be listed, and all those listed should meet them.

Contributorship and acknowledgements

Contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship, such as those who provided funding, general supervision, technical help, or writing assistance, should be recognised in an acknowledgements section rather than listed as authors. We encourage authors to describe each author's specific contribution so that credit is transparent.

The corresponding author

Each submission must name one corresponding author who takes primary responsibility for communication with the journal during submission, review, and publication, who ensures that all co-authors have approved the submission and any revisions, and who is available to respond to queries after publication. Listing a person as an author confirms that they have agreed to be included.

Changes to authorship

Any change to the authorship list after submission, whether adding, removing, or reordering authors, requires the written agreement of all authors, including the person being added or removed, together with an explanation. Editors may decline changes that are not properly justified. Requests to change authorship after publication are handled through a correction notice.

Artificial intelligence is not an author

Generative AI tools do not meet the criteria for authorship and must not be listed as authors, because they cannot take responsibility for the work or be accountable for it. Any use of such tools in preparing a manuscript must instead be disclosed as described in our policy on the Use of AI & Generative AI. Authors remain fully responsible for the entire content of their work.

Disputes

We do not adjudicate authorship disputes ourselves; these are matters for the authors and, where necessary, their institutions. Where a dispute arises, we follow COPE guidance and may pause consideration or publication until it is resolved.