Authorship and Disclosures

The International Journal of Medical Students (IJMS) requires authorship and disclosure information to represent accurately who contributed to the work, what each author contributed, and which relationships or sources of support may be relevant to its interpretation.

Authors must agree on the author list, author order, corresponding author, CRediT contribution statement, funding information, acknowledgments, and competing-interest disclosures before submission.

Contents

Authorship Principles
Authorship Criteria
Responsibilities of All Authors
CRediT Contribution Statement
Corresponding Author
Author Order
Changes in Authorship
Group Authorship
Acknowledgments and Nonauthor Contributors
ORCID Identifiers
Funding and Material Support
Competing Interests
Disclosure Responsibilities
Editor and Reviewer Conflicts
Authorship or Disclosure Concerns
Related Policies and Resources

Authorship Principles

Authorship provides both scholarly credit and accountability. The author list must identify the individuals who made qualifying intellectual contributions and who accept responsibility for the published work.

Authorship must not be:

offered as an honorary, personal, institutional, or professional favor;
assigned solely because an individual is a supervisor, department head, mentor, funder, or senior investigator;
used solely to satisfy author-eligibility requirements;
withheld from an individual who made a qualifying contribution;
assigned without the individual’s knowledge and approval; or
determined by administrative position, reputation, payment, or access to resources alone.

Authors should discuss authorship early in the project and review the agreement whenever contributions change.

Authorship Criteria

Each author must have made a substantial intellectual contribution to the conception or design of the work; the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data or other scholarly material; or the drafting or critical revision of the manuscript, as applicable to the article type. All authors must approve the final version and accept accountability for their contributions.

An individual who does not satisfy the authorship criteria must not be included as an author. A contributor who does not qualify for authorship may be recognized in the acknowledgments with permission.

The following activities alone do not ordinarily establish authorship:

obtaining funding;
providing general supervision;
offering routine administrative support;
providing facilities, equipment, or access to participants;
performing language editing or proofreading;
providing technical services without an intellectual contribution; or
holding a senior academic or institutional position.

These activities may contribute to authorship when combined with the intellectual involvement, final approval, and accountability required above.

Responsibilities of All Authors

Before submission, every author must:

review and approve the complete manuscript;
approve the author list and author order;
approve the corresponding author;
confirm the accuracy of the contribution attributed to them;
approve the CRediT contribution statement;
disclose relevant funding and competing interests;
confirm that their name, affiliation, and other author information are accurate;
identify any material error or concern known to them; and
accept accountability for their contribution to the work.

Authors share responsibility for responding appropriately when questions arise concerning the accuracy, ethics, originality, authorship, or integrity of the manuscript.

CRediT Contribution Statement

The IJMS uses the Contributor Roles Taxonomy (CRediT) to describe each author’s contributions.

The CRediT statement must:

include every listed author;
use the author names exactly as they appear in the author list;
assign only roles that the individual genuinely performed;
distinguish authors who performed different roles;
remain consistent with the author list and manuscript history; and
be approved by all authors.

CRediT describes contributions but does not independently determine authorship. Every listed author must still satisfy the Journal’s authorship criteria.

The available CRediT roles are:

Conceptualization
Data curation
Formal analysis
Funding acquisition
Investigation
Methodology
Project administration

Resources
Software
Supervision
Validation
Visualization
Writing – original draft
Writing – review and editing

Build the CRediT Statement Online

Use the PDF Author Form

Corresponding Author

The corresponding author serves as the principal contact between the author group and the Journal.

The corresponding author is responsible for:

submitting the manuscript with the approval of all authors;
confirming the accuracy and completeness of the submission metadata;
ensuring that every author is included in the submission record;
communicating editorial decisions and requests to all authors;
coordinating responses, revisions, and required documentation;
notifying the Journal of proposed authorship or disclosure changes;
confirming that all authors approve revised and final versions;
reviewing publication information and proofs carefully; and
remaining available for questions concerning the published article.

Designation as corresponding author does not imply greater ownership of the work or relieve the other authors of their responsibilities.

Author Order

The author group is responsible for deciding the order in which authors are listed. The Journal does not determine author order or infer the relative importance of contributions from position alone.

The author order must be:

agreed upon by all authors before submission;
consistent on the title page, in OJS metadata, and in the CRediT statement;
reviewed again before acceptance and publication; and
changed only through the documented process described below.

Any designation of equal contribution or shared corresponding authorship must be accurate, agreed upon by the author group, and approved by the Journal before publication.

Changes in Authorship

A request to add, remove, replace, or reorder authors must be submitted as soon as the need for the change is identified.

The request must include:

the reason for the proposed change;
an explanation of the contributions of the affected individuals;
an updated author list and author order;
an updated CRediT contribution statement;
confirmation from all existing and proposed authors; and
any additional documentation requested by the Journal.

The Journal may pause editorial or production work while the request is evaluated. Approval of the manuscript by one author does not establish consent from the complete author group.

The Journal may decline a change that is inadequately explained, unsupported, disputed, inconsistent with the authorship criteria, or intended to conceal an authorship problem.

Unresolved disputes should ordinarily be addressed by the authors’ institutions. The Journal cannot determine independently who performed disputed work when the available evidence is insufficient.

Group Authorship

A research group, consortium, collaborative network, or study team may be identified in the byline when group authorship accurately represents the work.

The submission must distinguish:

individuals who qualify as authors;
the name of the collaborative group;
individual group members who contributed but do not qualify as authors; and
the contributions and accountability of the named authors.

Individuals identified as authors must satisfy the same criteria and responsibilities as other authors. Membership in a study group or consortium alone does not establish authorship.

The corresponding author must provide the complete information needed for indexing and publication and must ensure that the group has approved the submitted representation.

Acknowledgments and Nonauthor Contributors

Individuals who contributed to the work but do not qualify for authorship may be recognized in the acknowledgments.

Acknowledged contributions may include:

administrative or logistical assistance;
technical or laboratory support;
language editing or proofreading;
statistical consultation that does not establish authorship;
general mentorship or supervision;
assistance obtaining resources or access;
community or institutional coordination; and
other support that contributed to the work.

Obtain permission before identifying a person by name because acknowledgment may imply that the individual endorses the work.

Professional writing, editorial, statistical, technical, or commercial assistance must be identified together with its source of funding when applicable.

ORCID Identifiers

Provide an ORCID identifier for each author when available. Authors without one are encouraged to register.

Each available ORCID should:

belong to the correct author;
be entered accurately in the title page and OJS metadata;
use the complete web-address format; and
remain associated with the author’s correct publication name.

Example: https://orcid.org/0000-0000-0000-0000

Register for an ORCID Identifier

Funding and Material Support

Authors must disclose financial, institutional, material, or other support connected with the work.

The funding statement should identify, when applicable:

the complete name of each funder or supporting organization;
grant or award numbers;
institutional or departmental support;
equipment, materials, services, software, or personnel provided without charge;
support received through a larger study, registry, program, or database;
professional writing, editorial, or statistical assistance;
the author or project that received the support; and
the funder’s role in study design, conduct, analysis, interpretation, manuscript preparation, or publication decisions.

Funding acquisition alone does not establish authorship.

When no funding or material support was received, authors should provide an explicit statement.

Suggested wording: The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, or publication of this article.

Competing Interests

A competing interest exists when a financial, professional, institutional, academic, personal, legal, or other relationship could influence, or reasonably appear to influence, the work or its interpretation.

The existence of a competing interest does not automatically prevent publication. Transparent disclosure allows editors, reviewers, and readers to evaluate the relationship appropriately.

Relevant interests may include:

Category	Examples
Financial	Employment, consulting, honoraria, speaking fees, stock ownership, patents, royalties, paid expert testimony, grants, gifts, or travel support.
Professional	Leadership, advisory, supervisory, editorial, or organizational roles related to the subject of the manuscript.
Institutional	Relationships involving an author’s institution, employer, sponsor, or affiliated organization.
Academic	Strong intellectual commitments, direct competition, recent collaboration, or involvement in closely related work.
Personal	Close personal relationships, disputes, or circumstances that may affect objectivity.
Legal or regulatory	Litigation, regulatory proceedings, advocacy activity, or expert participation related to the manuscript’s subject.

Authors must disclose relevant interests even when they believe the relationship did not influence the work.

When no competing interests exist, authors should provide an explicit declaration.

Suggested wording: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Disclosure Responsibilities

Each author is responsible for ensuring that their disclosure is complete, accurate, current, and consistent with the manuscript and submission metadata.

Disclosures must be updated when:

a new relationship or source of support arises during review or production;
the authors identify an omission or inaccuracy;
the author group or author order changes;
the funding or sponsor role changes;
new intellectual-property or commercial interests arise; or
the Journal requests clarification.

The corresponding author coordinates collection and submission of the disclosures but does not assume responsibility for undisclosed information known only to another author.

The Journal may request additional explanation or documentation when a disclosure is unclear, incomplete, inconsistent, or potentially relevant to editorial evaluation.

Editor and Reviewer Conflicts

Editors and reviewers must disclose relationships or interests that could affect, or reasonably appear to affect, their impartiality.

Conflicted editors must not participate in the evaluation or decision. Reviewers should decline an invitation when they cannot provide an independent assessment.

Complete requirements concerning editorial independence, reassignment, reviewer selection, and confidential handling are provided in the Editorial Policies and the Editorial and Peer-Review Process.

Authorship or Disclosure Concerns

Editorial processing may be paused when a question arises concerning authorship, contribution, author consent, funding, acknowledgment, or competing interests.

The Journal may:

request clarification from the corresponding author and other authors;
request individual confirmation from each author;
request an updated CRediT statement;
request supporting documentation;
contact an institution or another appropriate body when necessary;
require correction of the author or disclosure information;
decline the manuscript;
withdraw acceptance before publication; or
refer the matter for evaluation under the Research Integrity policy.

When inaccurate or incomplete authorship or disclosure information is identified after publication, the Journal may correct the published record or take other action under the Corrections, Retractions, and Appeals policy.

Editorial Policies

Editorial independence, peer review, confidentiality, and management of editor and reviewer conflicts.

Research Ethics

Ethics review, participant consent, privacy, registration, and responsible use of human or animal data.

Research Integrity

Plagiarism, data and image integrity, duplicate publication, misrepresentation, and investigation of concerns.

Corrections, Retractions, and Appeals

Correction of published authorship or disclosure information and other post-publication action.

Title-Page Requirements

Placement and formatting of author names, affiliations, contributions, funding, and disclosures.

Submission Checklist

Final verification of the author list, CRediT statement, funding, and competing-interest information.

Review Manuscript Preparation

Submit a Manuscript