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Authorship and Contributorship

This guide provides researchers with a comprehensive overview of the ethical attribution of authors and other contributors. It covers the key frameworks and guidelines, including the ICMJE and CRediT systems, as well as the CSE and COPE standards. Additio

The Contributor Roles Taxonomy (CRediT) was created in 2014 by a group of journal editors, publishers, and funding representatives. It aims to clearly show contributions to scholarly work, addressing limitations in traditional author lists. CRediT is now widely used across various scientific fields. It provides a standardized way to describe each person's specific contribution to a research output.

The 14 CRediT Roles

  1. Conceptualization. Ideas; formulation or evolution of overarching research goals and aims.
  2. Methodology. Development or design of methodology; creation of models.
  3. Software. Programming, software development; designing computer programs; implementation of the computer code and supporting algorithms.
  4. Validation. Verification, whether as a part of the activity or separate, of the overall replication/reproducibility of results/experiments and other research outputs.
  5. Formal Analysis. Application of statistical, mathematical, computational, or other formal techniques to analyze or synthesize study data.
  6. Investigation. Conducting a research and investigation process, specifically performing the experiments, or data/evidence collection.
  7. Resources. Provision of study materials, reagents, materials, patients, laboratory samples, animals, instrumentation, computing resources, or other analysis tools.
  8. Data Curation. Management activities to annotate (produce metadata), scrub data and maintain research data for initial use and later re-use.
  9. Writing - Original Draft. Preparation, creation and/or presentation of the published work, specifically writing the initial draft.
  10. Writing - Review & Editing. Preparation, creation and/or presentation of the published work by those from the original research group, specifically critical review, commentary or revision – including pre- or post-publication stages.
  11. Visualization. Preparation, creation and/or presentation of the published work, specifically visualization/data presentation.
  12. Supervision. Oversight and leadership responsibility for the research activity planning and execution, including mentorship external to the core team.
  13. Project Administration. Management and coordination responsibility for the research activity planning and execution.
  14. Funding Acquisition. Acquisition of the financial support for the project leading to this publication.

Using CRediT

  • Use CRediT to clearly define your role(s) in the research. Be specific about what you did.
  • You can have multiple roles. For example, you might have contributed to both the methodology and the writing.
  • CRediT adds to, but does not replace, authorship criteria. It's a way to provide more detail about contributions.
  • Many journals now require CRediT statements when submitting papers. Be prepared to provide this information.

Benefits for New Researchers

  • Shows your specific contributions clearly. This can be especially helpful if you're not the first author but made important contributions.
  • Helps establish your expertise in particular areas. This can be valuable for building your research profile.
  • Supports fair recognition in large team projects. It ensures that all contributions, even those that might not traditionally be considered "authorship," are acknowledged.

Subject Area Adoption

CRediT is used by many publishers across various fields. Check if journals in your field use CRediT, as it's becoming more common. Even if it's not required, consider using it to clearly communicate your contributions.

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