Authorship and Contributorship

Journal of Midwifery (JOM) promotes accurate attribution of scholarly work and transparent disclosure of contributions. This policy defines who qualifies for authorship, how contributorship is recorded, and how changes to authorship are handled. It aligns with COPE Core Practices and uses the CRediT taxonomy for contributorship.

1. Introduction

  • Authorship confers credit and responsibility. Listed authors must be able to identify which co-authors are responsible for specific parts of the work and must have confidence in the integrity of the contributions of their co-authors.

  • Contributor roles that do not meet authorship criteria are recognized in Acknowledgments.

  • Undisclosed ghost, guest, or gift authorship is prohibited.

2. Description

2.1 Authorship criteria

A contributor qualifies as an author if all the following are met:

  1. Substantial contribution to the conception/design; or acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data; or creation/curation of software or materials.

  2. Drafting the work or critically revising it for important intellectual content.

  3. Final approval of the version to be published.

  4. Accountability for all aspects of the work, ensuring questions related to accuracy or integrity are appropriately investigated and resolved.

2.2 Unacceptable practices

  • Ghost authorship (substantial, uncredited contributors), guest/gift authorship (listed without qualifying contributions), bought authorship, and peer-review or citation manipulation are violations.

  • Inappropriate AI use: AI tools cannot be authors and cannot assume responsibility; see AI policy for permitted uses and required disclosures.

2.3 Contributorship (CRediT)

  • All submissions must include a CRediT statement describing each author’s roles (e.g., Conceptualization; Methodology; Software; Validation; Formal analysis; Investigation; Resources; Data curation; Writing – original draft; Writing – review & editing; Visualization; Supervision; Project administration; Funding acquisition).

  • Contributorship statements are published on the article page.

2.4 Corresponding author

  • Ensures all authors meet criteria, have approved the manuscript, and agree to its submission; acts as point of contact; coordinates responses and data/materials requests; ensures registration/ethics approvals and data availability statements are accurate; manages authorship changes requests with documented consent from all authors.

2.5 Special cases

  • Equal contribution: note “These authors contributed equally” with justification in the contributorship statement.

  • Group/consortia authorship: list the group name as author and provide a complete member list and attributions in an appendix or supplementary file.

  • Medical/scientific writers or editors: acknowledge explicitly, including funding source or sponsor.

  • Deceased or incapacitated authors: include with consent from a legal representative or estate where applicable; state the date of death and extent of contribution.

  • Name changes: JOM supports discrete updates to published records at an author’s request without requiring public disclosure of the reason.

3. Policy

Mandatory declarations

  • CRediT roles, funding, conflicts of interest, ethics approvals/consents (when relevant), and a data availability statement are required on submission.

ORCID

  • We strongly encourage an ORCID iD for each author and require it for the corresponding author to support unambiguous attribution.

Affiliations

  • Use the affiliation(s) current at the time of the substantive work; updateable via a post-publication notice if necessary.

AI tools and authorship

  • AI tools must not be listed as authors; permitted uses require disclosure (tool, version/date, scope of assistance) and human verification. See the AI policy for details.

Accountability

  • All authors share responsibility for the content. At least one author (often the corresponding author) should be designated as responsible for data/materials/code integrity and availability.

4. Technicalities to Achieve and Materialise the Policies

4.1 Determining authorship (before submission)

  • Agree on authorship eligibility, order, corresponding author, equal-contribution notes, and group authorship details. Record this agreement within the research team.

4.2 During submission

  • Provide full names, affiliations, emails, ORCID iDs, CRediT roles, funding, conflicts, ethics approvals/consents (as applicable), data availability, and trial registration (if applicable).

  • Upload any required permissions for third-party content and confirm compliance with the AI policy.

4.3 Changes to authorship (addition, removal, reorder)

  • Allowed before acceptance and, in exceptional cases, after acceptance/before publication with:
    a) Written, signed confirmation (email is acceptable) from all listed authors (including any added/removed authors);
    b) Clear reason for the change;
    c) Updated CRediT and conflicts/funding statements.

  • Post-publication changes require a corrigendum.

  • If consensus cannot be reached, JOM may pause processing and refer parties to their institution(s) for resolution; we follow COPE guidance.

4.4 Dispute resolution

  • JOM does not adjudicate contribution disputes; we facilitate communication and may seek independent institutional input. Editorial decisions proceed only when authorship is resolved.

4.5 Acknowledgments

  • Name contributors who do not meet authorship criteria (e.g., technical assistance, administrative support, language editing, medical writing) and disclose funding or sponsor involvement for these services, with written permission from the acknowledged individuals.

4.6 Deceased/incapacitated authors

  • Provide documentation of contribution and approval status, and identify a guarantor for the work. Note the circumstance in the article.

4.7 Name changes

  • On request to the editorial office, we will update author names across the online article and metadata (and notify the DOI registry), coordinating discreetly to protect privacy.

4.8 Corrections and sanctions

  • Detected authorship improprieties may lead to correction, rejection, or retraction. Repeated or egregious violations may result in submission embargos and notification of institutions/funders.

Related and supporting policies

Contact

For authorship and contributorship queries, contact the editorial office: jom@med.unand.ac.id

Back to Publication Ethics main page: https://jom.fk.unand.ac.id/index.php/jom/ethics