Authorship and Contributorship Policy
The International Journal of Research and Community Empowerment (IJoRCE) is committed to ensuring transparency, accountability, fairness, and appropriate recognition of contributions to scholarly work. This policy is developed with reference to the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy), and established international publishing ethics practices, including those adopted by Elsevier.
1. Authorship Requirements
The manuscript must be written by at least two authors, preferably from different institutions and countries, as stipulated in the IJoRCE manuscript requirements. This preference is intended to encourage scholarly collaboration and does not justify the inclusion of individuals who do not qualify for authorship.
Authorship should be limited to individuals who have made genuine and significant scholarly contributions to the research and/or preparation of the manuscript. Individuals listed as authors are expected to:
- make a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, analysis, interpretation, or preparation of the work;
- review and approve the manuscript submitted to IJoRCE and its final version for publication; and
- accept responsibility and accountability for their respective contributions and the integrity of the published work.
All individuals who qualify for authorship should be appropriately included, while individuals who do not qualify for authorship should not be listed as authors.
Academic position, seniority, institutional authority, professional relationship, or reputation alone does not justify authorship.
2. Author Contributions and CRediT
IJoRCE requires every manuscript to include an Author Contributions Statement describing the individual contributions of all authors using the CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy).
CRediT provides a standardized framework for transparently describing contributions to scholarly work. The taxonomy consists of the following 14 contributor roles:
- Conceptualization – Ideas; formulation or evolution of overarching research goals and aims.
- Methodology – Development or design of methodology; creation of models.
- Software – Programming, software development, implementation of computer code and supporting algorithms, or testing of existing code components.
- Validation – Verification of the reproducibility or validity of results, experiments, or other research outputs.
- Formal Analysis – Application of statistical, mathematical, computational, or other formal techniques to analyze or synthesize research data.
- Investigation – Conducting the research process, experiments, or data/evidence collection.
- Resources – Provision of study materials, instrumentation, facilities, samples, computing resources, or other research resources.
- Data Curation – Management, organization, annotation, maintenance, and preservation of research data for initial and later use.
- Writing – Original Draft – Preparation and creation of the initial manuscript.
- Writing – Review & Editing – Critical review, commentary, revision, or editing of the manuscript.
- Visualization – Preparation, creation, and presentation of data or research findings in visual forms.
- Supervision – Oversight, leadership, and mentorship related to the planning and execution of the research.
- Project Administration – Management and coordination of the research activity.
- Funding Acquisition – Acquisition of financial support for the research project.
An author may be assigned more than one CRediT role, and the same role may be assigned to more than one author where appropriate. Only roles actually performed by a contributor should be reported.
CRediT is used to describe who contributed to the work and in what capacity. Assignment of a CRediT role does not, by itself, determine whether an individual qualifies for authorship.
The Author Contributions Statement must be included in the manuscript and will be published as part of the final article.
Example
Utama Alan Deta: Conceptualization, Methodology, and Validation; Nurita Apridiana Lestari: Methodology, Formal Analysis, Resources, and Writing – Original Draft; and Fitriana: Data Curation, Project Administration, and Writing – Review & Editing.
3. Corresponding Author and Mandatory Authorship Declaration
The Corresponding Author serves as the primary contact between the authors and IJoRCE throughout the submission, peer-review, publication, and post-publication processes.
The Corresponding Author is responsible for ensuring that:
- all listed authors qualify for authorship;
- no qualifying author has been omitted and no inappropriate author has been included;
- all authors have reviewed and approved the submitted manuscript;
- all authors have agreed to the author list and author order;
- the CRediT contribution statement accurately represents the contributions of all authors and has been agreed upon by them; and
- all relevant declarations and information submitted to IJoRCE are complete and accurate.
As part of the submission process, the Corresponding Author and/or First Author must complete and sign the Statement of Manuscript Authenticity provided in the official IJoRCE manuscript template. The signed statement must be uploaded as a separate PDF file through the journal's Online Journal System (OJS) together with the manuscript and other required supplementary files.
Through this statement, the signing author confirms on behalf of the author group that the author list and order are correct, all listed authors have significantly participated in the research and/or preparation of the manuscript, and no inappropriate authorship is involved. The signing author also confirms that the other authors have been informed of the provisions contained in the declaration and that the signing author is authorized to sign on their behalf.
An unsigned, incomplete, or missing Statement of Manuscript Authenticity may result in the submission being returned to the authors before further editorial processing. The Editorial Team may request individual confirmation from any co-author when clarification regarding authorship or contribution is required.
4. Author Order and Changes in Authorship
The author list and author order must be determined and agreed upon by all authors before manuscript submission. IJoRCE does not determine author order on behalf of the authors.
Any request to add, remove, rearrange, or otherwise change authorship after submission will only be considered when a valid reason is provided. The request must include:
- a clear explanation and justification for the proposed change;
- an updated Author Contributions Statement, where applicable; and
- written agreement from all authors, including any author being added or removed.
The Editor may request additional clarification or supporting documentation before considering the request.
IJoRCE generally does not permit changes in authorship after a manuscript has been accepted for publication, except where necessary to correct a substantiated authorship error or address a publication ethics or research integrity issue.
If an authorship change is approved after publication, the scholarly record will be updated transparently through an appropriate Correction or other post-publication notice.
5. Non-Author Contributors and Inappropriate Authorship
Individuals who contributed to the research or manuscript but do not qualify for authorship should not be included in the author list. Where appropriate, their contributions may instead be recognized in the Acknowledgement section.
IJoRCE does not permit inappropriate or misleading authorship practices, including:
- Guest or Gift Authorship – including an individual as an author despite the absence of a qualifying scholarly contribution.
- Honorary Authorship – granting authorship primarily because of seniority, academic position, authority, reputation, or institutional relationship rather than a genuine scholarly contribution.
- Ghost Authorship – omitting an individual who made a contribution that qualifies for authorship or concealing a substantial contribution to the research or manuscript.
The sale, purchase, exchange, transfer, or assignment of authorship without genuine scholarly contribution is also prohibited.
The IJoRCE Statement of Manuscript Authenticity requires authors to declare that all listed authors have participated significantly in the research and/or preparation of the manuscript and that no guest, honorary, gift, ghost, or anonymous author is involved.
6. Authorship Disputes and Misconduct
Authors are expected to resolve questions concerning authorship, author order, and contributions before submitting the manuscript.
Where an authorship dispute arises during editorial processing, IJoRCE may suspend the manuscript process while the matter is clarified. The Editorial Team may request statements from the authors, CRediT contribution information, supporting documentation, or clarification from the relevant institution(s).
IJoRCE editors may assess compliance with the journal's authorship policy but are not normally responsible for adjudicating disputes concerning the relative contributions of individual researchers. Where the authors cannot resolve a substantive dispute, the journal may refer the matter to the relevant institution(s) or research integrity body.
Suspected guest, gift, honorary, ghost, or otherwise inappropriate authorship will be handled in accordance with relevant COPE guidance. Where necessary to protect the integrity of the scholarly record, IJoRCE may take appropriate editorial or post-publication action, including correction or retraction.
7. Artificial Intelligence and Authorship
Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI), Large Language Models (LLMs), chatbots, and other AI-assisted technologies cannot be listed as authors or co-authors because they cannot assume responsibility and accountability for scholarly work.
Human authors remain responsible for all content submitted to and published by IJoRCE, including content developed with the assistance of AI or other assistive technologies.
Any use of AI or AI-assisted technologies must comply with the separate IJoRCE Policy on Artificial Intelligence and Assistive Technologies and the applicable disclosure requirements.
Policy Basis and References
This policy has been developed with reference to the following standards, guidance, and IJoRCE requirements:
- Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), Open Access Scholarly Publishing Association (OASPA), and World Association of Medical Editors (WAME). Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing, Version 4. The principles require journals to clearly state their authorship criteria and maintain visible policies on authorship and contributorship.
https://doi.org/10.24318/cope.2019.1.12 - Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Handling Changes to Authorship Lists. COPE Position, 2024. This guidance addresses requests for additions, removals, and other changes to authorship lists.
https://publicationethics.org/guidance/cope-position/handling-changes-authorship-lists - Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Ghost, Guest, or Gift Authorship in a Submitted Manuscript. COPE guidance for handling suspected inappropriate authorship.
https://doi.org/10.24318/cope.2019.2.18 - CRediT – Contributor Roles Taxonomy, National Information Standards Organization (NISO). CRediT provides a standardized taxonomy of 14 contributor roles and was approved as ANSI/NISO Z39.104-2022.
https://credit.niso.org/ - CRediT – Contributor Role Descriptors. The CRediT roles describe contributors' specific activities but are not intended to independently determine authorship eligibility.
https://credit.niso.org/contributor-roles-defined/ - Elsevier. Publishing Ethics – Duties of Authors: Authorship of the Paper. Elsevier's policy addresses qualifying contributions, responsibilities of the corresponding author, author approval, author order, authorship changes, and collective accountability.
https://www.elsevier.com/about/policies-and-standards/publishing-ethics - Elsevier. CRediT Author Statement. The guidance states that the corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that CRediT descriptions are accurate and agreed upon by all authors, that authors may hold multiple roles, and that CRediT does not change a journal's criteria for authorship.
https://www.elsevier.com/researcher/author/policies-and-guidelines/credit-author-statement - International Journal of Research and Community Empowerment (IJoRCE). Manuscript Template 2026. The template establishes the requirement for at least two authors, requires an Author Contributions Statement using CRediT, and requires submission of a signed Statement of Manuscript Authenticity as part of the manuscript submission process.
