Authorship denotes responsibility and accountability for published work, other that bestows credit. Credits are given to authors and contributors to clarify authors’ roles in taking responsibility and accountability for the article published. Each author should have contributed adequately to be publicly accountable for the content of the article.
Authors and contributors are expected to perform the following functions:
Make significant contributions to the conception, design, execution, data acquisition; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the study
Draft the manuscript or revised it critically for important intellectual content
Review and approve the final version of the manuscript
Agree to its submission for publication and to be accountable for all aspects related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work.
The identification of the contributors who meet these criteria shall be made by the individual(s) who conduct the work or the institution(s) where the work was conducted. Editor-in-Chief is not responsible to determine the authorship or to arbitrate authorship conflicts. Any request by the authors to remove or add an author after article submission or publication shall be accompanied with an explanation and signed statement of agreement for the requested change from all listed authors and from the author to be removed or added.
Other forms of contributions, such as technical help, proofreading, acquisition of funding alone, collection of data alone, and general supervision of the study alone do not meet the above criteria and therefore do not characterise authorship. Nonetheless, such contributions should be acknowledged in the “Acknowledgements” section.
The corresponding author is the individual who takes the responsibility for communication with the journal during the manuscript submission, peer review, and publication process, as well as completing all required information for publication purposes, such as providing details of authorship and completing conflict of interest forms and statements. Other roles include responding to editorial queries in a timely manner, replying to critiques of the manuscript and accommodating any requests from the journal for data or additional information.
Duties of Authors
Authors should present the study accurately in terms of the work performed and the results. The manuscript should contain sufficient detail and references to allow for replication of the study. Review articles should be accurate, objective and all-inclusive. Editorial opinion or perspective articles should be clearly indicated as such.
Authors should be prepared to provide the raw data of their study, whenever required, for editorial review. It is expected that all data are accessible to peers for at least seven years after publication, usually via an institutional data repository or other data centre. The confidentiality of the participants is to remain protected and legal rights concerning proprietary data do not preclude their release.
Authors should submit entirely original manuscript and ensure that the use of others’ ideas, work and words are properly cited. All forms of plagiarism are unethical and unacceptable.
Authors should ensure that the work of others and publications that have been instrumental in the described work are properly acknowledged.
Authors should not submit a manuscript that is under consideration by another journal. Concurrent submission of a manuscript to more than one journal is unethical and unacceptable.
Authors should disclose any conflict of interest that might be interpreted to influence the results or their interpretation in the manuscript at the earliest stage possible. The authors are responsible for obtaining ethics committee and public disclosure approval from their respective institutions. All sources of financial support relevant to the work should be disclosed, including the name of the fund, the grant number or other identifying information in the manuscript.
If animals or human participants were involved in the study, the authors should ensure that all procedures taken complied with relevant laws and appropriate approval has been obtained. Whenever experimentation with human participants was used in the study, the authors should have obtained informed consent from the participants. The manuscript should contain a statement(s) to these effects.
Authors are responsible to cooperate and respond to editors’ requests during the peer review process. All responses to reviewers’ comments should be made in a timely manner.
Whenever authors discover any fundamental errors or inaccuracies after their work has been published, the authors are required to promptly inform the Editor-in-Chief. The authors are to cooperate with the editors in ensuing course of action. If the errors or inaccuracies are discovered by a third party, the authors are also required to respond and cooperate with the Editor-in-Chief in resolving the issue. Authors may be required to provide evidence of the correctness of the article. Possible courses of action following the discovery may include correcting the article in the form or an erratum or retract the paper.
