Authorship and Contributorship Policy

Authorship and Contributorship Policy

Avicenna Journal of Clinical and Translational Medicine

AJCTM recognizes authorship as both scientific credit and responsibility. The journal follows the authorship principles of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) and encourages transparent reporting of individual contributions.

1. Criteria for Authorship

Each author must meet all four requirements:

1. Make a substantial contribution to study conception or design, or to data acquisition, analysis or interpretation.
2. Draft the manuscript or critically revise important intellectual content.
3. Approve the final version for publication.
4. Agree to be accountable for the integrity and accuracy of the work and participate in resolving related concerns.

All individuals who qualify should have the opportunity to participate in manuscript development and final approval.

2. Author Contributions

Every submitted manuscript must contain an Author Contributions statement describing the substantive roles of individual authors.

AJCTM encourages the CRediT taxonomy, including roles such as Conceptualization, Methodology, Investigation, Formal Analysis, Data Curation, Writing, Supervision and Project Administration.

Assignment of a CRediT role does not, by itself, establish eligibility for authorship under the ICMJE criteria.

3. Corresponding Author

The corresponding author coordinates submission, editorial correspondence, required declarations, revisions, author confirmations and proof review.

All authors retain responsibility for their own contributions and must be able to identify the responsible contributors for other aspects of the work.

4. Authorship Order and Changes

Author order must be agreed upon by the contributing authors before submission.

Requests to add, remove or reorder authors after submission must include a written explanation and documented agreement from all listed authors and affected individuals.

The Editorial Office may suspend assessment while an unresolved authorship dispute is considered by the relevant institution.

Changes after publication may require a formal correction notice.

5. Unacceptable Authorship Practices

Guest, gift, honorary, purchased and ghost authorship are unacceptable.

Acquisition of funding, routine supervision, technical assistance, language editing or administrative support alone does not qualify a contributor for authorship.

6. Acknowledgments

Individuals who contribute but do not meet all four authorship requirements should be acknowledged appropriately, with their permission where required.

The nature of their contribution should be described clearly.

7. Artificial Intelligence

AI systems and automated tools cannot be identified as authors because they cannot accept responsibility or accountability for published research.

Relevant AI-assisted contributions must be disclosed in accordance with AJCTM's Artificial Intelligence Policy.

8. Collaborative and Multicentre Research

For multicentre or international studies, authorship should reflect substantive contributions from participating investigators.

Researchers contributing to study design, data acquisition, analysis or interpretation should receive an appropriate opportunity to satisfy the remaining authorship criteria.

Contributors in countries where research is conducted should not be excluded from authorship solely because of their institutional status or geographic location.

9. Author Verification and Contact

The journal may request author contribution confirmations, institutional affiliations, ORCID identifiers or supporting documentation when necessary to establish authorship integrity.

For enquiries: editor@ajctm.org