👩‍🔬 Criteria for Authorship

An individual should be listed as an author only when they meet all four of the following criteria:

1. They have made substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work, or to the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data.
2. They have contributed to drafting the manuscript or reviewing it critically for important intellectual content.
3. They have given final approval of the version to be published.
4. They agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work and to ensure that questions relating to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

All individuals who meet all four criteria should be appropriately recognized as authors.

🧪 Author Responsibility and Accountability

Authorship carries both credit and responsibility.
Each author is expected to:

• Take responsibility for their own contribution to the work.
• Be familiar with the overall research and manuscript.
• Review and approve the final manuscript.
• Cooperate with reasonable requests concerning the accuracy or integrity of the work.
• Disclose relevant conflicts of interest.
• Ensure that information provided to the journal is accurate.
• Cooperate with investigations into potential research or publication misconduct.

Authors should have confidence in the integrity of the contributions made by their co-authors.

🏛 Corresponding Author

The corresponding author is responsible for communication with the journal during submission, peer review, revision, and publication.
The corresponding author should:

• Ensure that all listed authors have approved the submitted manuscript.
• Confirm that all authors meet the applicable authorship criteria.
• Provide accurate contact information for all authors.
• Coordinate communication between the journal and the author group.
• Ensure that required declarations and documentation are completed.
• Coordinate responses to editorial and reviewer comments.
• Obtain agreement from the author group regarding authorship changes where applicable.

The corresponding author should not add or remove authors without the appropriate agreement and documentation.

🔍 Author Order

The order in which authors are listed should be determined collectively by the authors before submission.

LQP does not ordinarily determine the order of authorship or resolve disagreements regarding the relative contribution of individual authors.

Authors are responsible for reaching agreement about author order before submitting the manuscript.

⚖️ Contributors Who Do Not Qualify as Authors

Individuals who contribute to a manuscript but do not satisfy all four authorship criteria should not be listed as authors solely because they participated in the research or publication process.

Examples may include individuals who provide only:

• General administrative support
• General supervision
• Funding acquisition alone
• Technical assistance
• Language editing
• Proofreading
• Administrative assistance

Such individuals may be appropriately acknowledged where their contribution warrants recognition.

ICMJE distinguishes contributors who do not meet all authorship criteria from authors and recommends that appropriate contributions be acknowledged rather than granting authorship solely on the basis of limited contributions.

📌 Contributorship Statements

Where required by the journal, authors should provide a clear description of each author's contribution to the work.

Contribution statements may include roles such as:

• Conceptualization
• Methodology
• Data collection
• Investigation
• Data analysis
• Statistical analysis
• Interpretation of results
• Manuscript drafting
• Critical review and editing
• Supervision
• Project administration

Authors should ensure that contributorship statements accurately reflect the actual contributions of each individual.

🔐 Group or Consortium Authorship

For research conducted by large collaborative groups, authorship should be determined according to the applicable authorship criteria.

Where a group or consortium is listed as an author, the corresponding author should provide appropriate information identifying the individuals who qualify for authorship and, where applicable, those who contributed as non-author collaborators.

All individuals identified as authors should satisfy the applicable authorship criteria and accept responsibility for their contributions.

🚫 Changes to Authorship Before Publication

Any request to add, remove, or change the order of authors after submission must be supported by an appropriate explanation.

LQP may require written confirmation from:

• All existing authors
• Any author being added
• Any author being removed

No authorship change should be made without appropriate agreement from the affected authors.

Editors may request additional documentation where an authorship change raises concerns about consent, responsibility, or potential misconduct.

🚫 Changes to Authorship After Publication

Requests to change authorship after publication will be considered carefully because the published scholarly record should not be altered without appropriate justification.

Where a post-publication authorship dispute arises, LQP may request evidence or statements from the authors and may refer the matter to the relevant institution or organization for investigation.

Where appropriate, a correction or other post-publication notice may be issued in accordance with the journal's corrections and publication ethics procedures.

📌 Authorship Disputes

LQP recognizes that authorship disputes may arise between collaborators.

The journal and publisher should not ordinarily determine who qualifies for authorship in a dispute between authors. Responsibility for resolving authorship disputes generally rests with the institution or organization where the research was conducted.

If the authors cannot reach agreement, LQP may request that the relevant institution investigate the matter and provide an appropriate determination.

This approach is consistent with ICMJE guidance that authorship disputes should generally be investigated by the relevant institution rather than by journal editors.

🔍 Honorary, Gift, and Guest Authorship

LQP does not support honorary, gift, guest, or other inappropriate forms of authorship.

Individuals should not be listed as authors solely because of:

• Seniority
• Position or institutional status
• Departmental leadership
• Funding support alone
• General supervision
• Personal or professional relationships

Likewise, individuals who have made qualifying intellectual contributions should not be excluded from authorship.

📌 Ghost Authorship

LQP does not support the practice of excluding individuals who have made substantial qualifying contributions from the author list.

Authors should ensure that all individuals who meet the applicable authorship criteria are appropriately recognized.

🔍 Local and Collaborative Researchers

LQP encourages fair and appropriate recognition of researchers who make qualifying contributions to research conducted in their institutions, countries, or communities.

Researchers who make substantial intellectual contributions should not be excluded from authorship because of their geographic location, institutional status, or role in the research setting.

📌 Artificial Intelligence and Authorship

Artificial intelligence tools, including generative AI systems, cannot be listed as authors.

AI systems cannot accept responsibility for the accuracy, integrity, or originality of published work and therefore cannot satisfy the requirements for authorship.

Authors remain fully responsible for the content of manuscripts prepared with the assistance of AI tools.

Where AI-assisted technology has been used in manuscript preparation, authors should disclose its use in accordance with the LQP Generative AI Policy and the applicable journal instructions. ICMJE's current recommendations specifically address disclosure of AI-assisted technology and do not treat AI tools as authors.

🔍 Acknowledgements

Individuals who have contributed to the work but do not meet the authorship criteria may be acknowledged with their permission.

Acknowledgements should accurately describe the contribution provided.

Authors should not use acknowledgements to imply authorship where the applicable authorship criteria have not been met.

📌 Responsibility for Authorship Information

The author group is collectively responsible for ensuring that:

• The author list is accurate.
• All listed authors meet the applicable authorship criteria.
• No qualifying contributor has been improperly excluded.
• Author order has been agreed upon.
• Contributions are accurately reported.
• All authors approve the final manuscript.
• All authors accept responsibility for the integrity of the work.

LQP may request clarification or supporting documentation where authorship information appears inconsistent or raises ethical concerns.

🔍 Editorial Handling of Authorship Concerns

Editors may request clarification when concerns arise regarding:

• Unexplained authorship changes
• Missing contributors
• Inappropriate authorship
• Disputes between authors
• Inconsistent contribution statements
• Potential authorship manipulation

Where appropriate, editorial processing may be paused until the matter is clarified.

Serious concerns may be handled under the relevant LQP Research Misconduct Policy and publication ethics procedures.

🔍 Applicability to LQP Journals

This Authorship and Contributorship Policy is a publisher-level policy of Lumina Quest Publishing (LQP) and applies to all journals currently published by LQP and any journals added to the LQP publishing program in the future.

LQP is committed to ensuring that authors receive appropriate credit for their contributions while maintaining clear accountability for the accuracy, integrity, and reliability of the scholarly record.