Authorship and Contribution

Authorship
Responsibility for authorship of a publication rests with those who carried out the work and submitted the manuscript. The journal is not responsible for the identification of authors nor does it settle questions of authorship. The journal subscribes to the view that an author is one who made a significant intellectual contribution to a work and who accepts accountability for that contribution. Anyone listed as an author of a work should approve the version of the manuscript as submitted as well as the page proofs prior to publication. Individuals whose contributions to the work do not warrant authorship should be identified by name, along with their specific contributions, in an acknowledgments section.

Should any questions about a work arise after publication, the author or authors should be willing to respond to these questions honestly and professionally.

Authorship Criteria
Authorship of a published work must be based only on substantial scholarly contribution, which may fall into at least one of the following lines of research work:
Conceptualizing and designing the study;
Processing and interpreting gathered data;
Drafting of the manuscript or revising it critically for important intellectual content; and
Giving the final approval of the version to be published.

Participation solely in the gathering of data or funding the study does not justify authorship. General supervision of the research process is not sufficient for authorship. The order of authors in the byline should be based on the relative contribution of the contributor toward the study and the writing of the manuscript.

Authors' Responsibilities
Responsibility for statements and the accuracy of facts rests solely with the individual authors. Authors are responsible for ensuring that all borrowed ideas and extracts from other works have proper attribution and that all sources are accounted for. Authors have the responsibility to ensure that a work does not contain any matter that is obscene, libelous, or contrary to law.

Authors are obliged to secure all necessary permissions or written authority for any parts of a work the copyright of which is owned by someone else and to pay any related fees. Authors should furnish the journal with copies of the permission obtained and proof of payment. Authors should disclose any conflict of interest. Authors are required to provide information on and acknowledgment of research and publication funds and the contribution of scientific and research institutions, associations, and other entities.

Contribution Details
Submissions that have three or more authors should provide a description of the contributions made by each author toward the manuscript. The description should be divided into the following categories, as applicable:
Concept
Design
Definition of intellectual content
Literature search
Data acquisition
Data analysis
Statistical analysis
Manuscript preparation
Manuscript editing
Manuscript review

Acknowledgement
Individuals who participated in the development of a manuscript (e.g., general supervision, acquisition of funding, study design, data collection, data analysis, technical assistance, formatting-related writing assistance, scholarly discussions that significantly contributed to developing the article, etc.) but do not qualify as authors should be acknowledged in the opening paragraph of the Notes section. Organizations that provided support in terms of funding and/or other resources should also be acknowledged.

Authors have the responsibility of notifying and obtaining permission from those they wish to identify in this section. The process of obtaining permission should include sharing the article so that those being identified can verify the context in which their contribution is being acknowledged.

Any assistance from artificial intelligence (AI) tools for content generation (e.g., large language models) and other similar technical tools must be clearly acknowledged within the article. Authors are expected to use such tools responsibly and in accordance with the journal’s editorial policies on authorship and principles of publishing ethics.