Purpose and Scope
This policy governs who qualifies as an author of content published by journals operating under the LMI publishing framework, what authorship obliges, and how authorship is recorded, verified and corrected. It applies to every named author and contributor and to journals' verification procedures.
Authorship Qualification and Accountability
Authorship shall be based on substantive contribution to the work, consistent with recognised authorship criteria: material contribution to conception, design, acquisition, analysis or interpretation; involvement in drafting or critical revision; approval of the version submitted and published; and agreement to be accountable for the work's integrity. Contribution to funding acquisition, general supervision, data collection alone, or provision of materials does not by itself justify authorship.
Every author is accountable for the work as a whole to the extent of being able to identify which co-authors are responsible for which parts, and for ensuring that questions about accuracy or integrity are appropriately investigated and resolved. Where discipline-specific authorship conventions differ from the general criteria above, the journal may recognise them provided the convention is publicly stated and accountability is preserved.
Prohibited Authorship Practices
The following are prohibited and, where deliberate, constitute publication misconduct under C5:
- Gift, guest or honorary authorship — naming a person who does not meet authorship criteria, including for seniority, patronage, reciprocity or perceived advantage.
- Ghost authorship — omitting a person who meets the criteria, including undisclosed professional writers, agency staff or sponsor personnel who contributed substantively.
- Purchase or sale of authorship — offering, buying, selling or brokering an authorship position, whether directly or through a third-party agency. Related manipulation is governed by C3.
- Coerced or non-consensual authorship — naming a person without their knowledge and documented agreement, or pressuring a person to accept or relinquish authorship.
Contributorship, Non-Author Contributors and Group Authorship
Journals shall require transparent disclosure of what each named author contributed, and are encouraged to use a recognised contributorship taxonomy such as CRediT where appropriate to the discipline. LMI does not require every journal or discipline to adopt an identical taxonomy where it would not fit the field's practice, but every journal shall require some transparent statement of contributions.
Substantive contributions not meeting authorship criteria — technical assistance, writing support, data collection, language editing, AI-assisted support disclosed under C4 — shall be acknowledged, with the acknowledged person's permission where they are identifiable. Where a group or collaboration is credited, the journal shall require identification of the members accountable for the work and clarity about how the group is to be cited and indexed.
Fair Recognition of Local, Community and Enabling Contributors
Research conducted across institutions, countries or communities shall recognise substantive intellectual and practical contributions fairly. Researchers who enabled participant access, contextual interpretation, field work, culturally appropriate methods, community engagement or data stewardship shall be considered for authorship where they meet the criteria, and otherwise acknowledged appropriately. A person shall not be excluded because of location, seniority, employment status, language, or the convention of treating local collaborators only as data collectors. Community participation or permission does not by itself create authorship, but collective and community contributions shall not be erased.
Professional Writing, Editing and Translation Assistance
Professional medical writing, substantive editorial assistance, translation and other third-party support shall be disclosed where they materially contributed to the manuscript, together with the source of funding where applicable. A person who meets the authorship criteria shall be named as an author rather than concealed as an acknowledged service provider. Routine language correction does not confer authorship; use of artificial intelligence is governed by Responsible Use of Artificial Intelligence in Scholarly Publishing (C4).
Author Order
The order of authors is a matter for the authors to determine among themselves before submission, unless disciplinary convention dictates otherwise, and shall reflect their agreed account of contribution. The journal records the order the authors submit; it does not adjudicate what the order should be.
Author Identity and Affiliation Integrity
Journals shall require and verify, proportionate to risk: full names as the authors wish to be cited; a valid institutional or professional contact for each author, with correspondence conducted through addresses the journal can reasonably attribute to the named person; accurate affiliations reflecting where the work was conducted, with any change of affiliation shown as a present address rather than a rewriting of provenance; and persistent researcher identifiers where supplied. An authenticated ORCID iD is encouraged for every author and ordinarily expected from the corresponding author where reasonably available. A journal may make ORCID mandatory through a clearly published journal-level rule, but absence of an ORCID shall not by itself determine the scholarly outcome; additional identity verification may be required where information is inconsistent or uncertain. Fabricated authors, false affiliations, impersonation and proxy email channels are integrity violations addressed under C3 and C5.
Corresponding Author
Each submission shall designate a corresponding author who is a genuine author, responsible for: communication with the journal through all stages; confirming that all named authors qualify, have consented and have approved the submission; managing declarations of competing interests (E1), funding, ethics documentation (D1) and data statements (E2); circulating correspondence and decisions to co-authors; and responding to post-publication questions. Designating a corresponding author does not reduce the accountability of any other author.
Authorship Changes and Disputes
Any addition, removal or reordering of authors after submission requires a written request stating the reason, with documented agreement from all authors — those being added, those being removed and all remaining authors. The journal shall satisfy itself that the request is genuine and shall record it; unexplained or late changes shall attract scrutiny, as they may indicate manipulation (C3).
Where authorship is disputed and cannot be resolved by the parties, the journal shall not act as fact-finder in matters requiring evidence it cannot access — laboratory records, employment relationships, supervision arrangements. The journal shall refer the parties to their institutions or other competent bodies, may pause consideration or publication meanwhile, and shall act on the outcome those bodies reach. After publication, corrections to authorship follow G2, with the same institutional-referral principle where facts are contested.
Author Name Changes, Pseudonyms, Death and Incapacity
A verified author may request a change to the name or pronouns under which a published work is displayed. Where the request is not connected with an integrity concern, the journal should update the article and metadata discreetly, without requiring disclosure of the reason and without a public correction notice unless the author requests one or a notice is needed to preserve citation clarity. Historical citations and persistent identifiers shall continue to resolve to the work.
Anonymous or pseudonymous authorship is exceptional and may be permitted only where a credible safety, legal or public-interest reason exists, the journal privately verifies the author’s identity and accountability, competing interests can be assessed, and the arrangement does not mislead readers or evade responsibility. The journal shall retain the verified identity confidentially and may decline the arrangement where accountability cannot be secured.
A deceased or incapacitated person may remain an author where they met the authorship criteria and approved the work before death or loss of capacity. Communication may proceed through an authorised representative, but no person shall be added posthumously without reliable evidence that the authorship criteria and approval requirement were met. The article may state that the author is deceased where appropriate.
Boundary with Editorial-Team Authorship
The absolute prohibition on publication in a journal by its own serving editorial team is established in B1 and is not restated here; it operates independently of this policy's authorship criteria.
Standards and Guidance
Informed by the ICMJE Recommendations on authorship and contributorship, the CRediT contributor-roles taxonomy, and COPE guidance on authorship problems.