Contributions to publications

Related guidelines:

An author is an individual who has made a genuine, identifiable contribution to the content of a research publication of text, data or software. All authors agree on the final version of the work to be published. Unless explicitly stat- ed otherwise, they share responsibility for the publication. Authors seek to ensure that, as far as possible, their contributions are identified by publishers or infrastructure providers such that they can be correctly cited by users.

The contribution must add to the research content of the publication. What constitutes a genuine and identifiable contribution must be evaluated on a case-by-case basis and depends on the subject area in question. An identifiable, genuine contribution is deemed to exist particularly in instances in which a researcher – in a research-relevant way – takes part in

the development and conceptual design of the research project, or
the gathering, collection, acquisition or provision of data, software or sources, or
the analysis/evaluation or interpretation of data, sources and conclusions drawn from them, or
the drafting of the manuscript.

If a contribution is not sufficient to justify authorship, the individual’s support may be properly acknowledged in footnotes, a foreword or an ac- knowledgement. Honorary authorship where no such contribution was made is not permissible. A leadership or supervisory function does not itself constitute co-authorship.

Collaborating researchers agree on authorship of a publication. The decision as to the order in which authors are named is made in good time, normally no later than when the manuscript is drafted, and in accordance with clear criteria that reflect the practices within the relevant subject areas. Researchers may not refuse to give their consent to publication of the results without sufficient grounds. Refusal of consent must be justified with verifiable criticism of data, methods or results.

Many journals include a so-called author contribution statement explaining how each author contributed to the joint project. The CRediT guidelines should be followed in such instances, whether or not these are stipulated by the publisher. In the engineering sciences, software design and prototype development are important contributions, too.

CRediT – Contributor Roles Taxonomy(externer Link)

Contributions to publications

Authorship

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Contributions to publications

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