What are the Principles for Assigning Authorship?

Authorship is very important because academic achievement often assessed in terms of published articles, and the authors of each article are considered to have played a principal role in clinical or experimental studies. It is reasonable that readers of a journal think that authors are experts in their field of study. However, the editorial office of Archives of Plastic Surgery (APS) sometimes receives letters requesting modifications of the authorship of an article, including addition, removal, and changing the order of authors. This is an awkward situation for the journal office. In many high-quality journals, author modification is not easy and can only be permitted with justifiable grounds. Some journals even request a description of the role of each author specifically to ensure fair attribution of authorship in the manuscript submission process. For example, an author can play a role in study conception and design, analysis and interpretation of the data, drafting the article, critical revisions for important intellectual content, final approval of the article, statistical expertise, and/or collection and assembly of the data. What, then, is the consensus for assigning authorship correctly? In 2013, the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors suggested 4 principles for defining authorship [1]. 1. Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work, or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND 2. Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND 3. Final approval of the version to be published; AND 4. 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. Those who do not meet all 4 criteria should be acknowledged. The provision of funding does not make an individual eligible for authorship. The same holds for general supervision or proofreading. The first author is held to have made the greatest contribution to the research. The corresponding author is the individual who takes primary responsibility for communication with the journal during the manuscript submission, peer review, and publication process, and who typically ensures the proper completion of all the jour-nal's administrative requirements, such as providing authorship details, ethics committee approval, clinical trial registration documentation , and conflict of interest forms and statements, although these duties may be delegated to 1 or more coauthors. The corresponding author should be available throughout the submission and peer …