Authorship · Reference
Authorship guidelines: a guide to the major frameworks
Authorship guidelines are the rules different publishers and style bodies set out for who may be an author and how authorship is reported; the major ones — ICMJE, COPE, APA, JAMA, Nature and IEEE — share core principles but differ in detail.
The step most authors miss
Doing CRediT right? Don’t stop at the statement.
A CRediT statement credits you inside one paper. The recognition CRediT was built for happens when those roles are tied to you, persistently. Sign in with your ORCID — free — and claim your CRediT contributions on casrai.org, the home of the standard. They become a verified, portable part of your identity, not a line that disappears into one PDF.
Free: claim your contributions, then export a journal-ready CRediT statement, schema.org structured data, JATS XML, CSV or BibTeX — and preview your public profile. A membership publishes that profile publicly and verifies the journals you serve.
The shared foundation
Most major authorship guidelines rest on the same core principle: authorship should reflect a substantial intellectual contribution coupled with accountability, and everyone who qualifies should be listed while no one who does not should be. The ICMJE four criteria are the most widely cited expression of this, and many other guidelines either adopt them, adapt them, or align with them. Increasingly, guidelines also ask for a structured contribution statement, often using CRediT, alongside the author list.
Where they diverge is in specifics — the exact wording of criteria, requirements for contribution statements, conflict-of-interest disclosure, and how AI use must be reported. Authors should always check the target journal’s own guidance, which takes precedence.
ICMJE and COPE
The ICMJE Recommendations define the four authorship criteria and are the reference standard across biomedical publishing. COPE (the Committee on Publication Ethics) does not set authorship criteria of its own but provides authoritative guidance and flowcharts on authorship and contributorship problems — disputes, changes to authorship, ghost and gift authorship — and on the AI-authorship question. Between them, ICMJE and COPE set the ethical baseline that many publishers reference.
Style bodies: APA, JAMA, IEEE
The American Psychological Association (APA) sets authorship expectations in its Publication Manual and ethics code, emphasising that authorship reflects substantial scientific contribution and warning against both over- and under-inclusion. JAMA and the JAMA Network, as ICMJE members, apply the ICMJE criteria and require detailed author-contribution and disclosure information. The IEEE, covering engineering and computing, sets out its own authorship principles in its publication policies, again centred on significant intellectual contribution and accountability.
Publisher policies: Nature and others
Large publishers maintain their own authorship policies on top of the ICMJE and COPE baselines. Nature Portfolio, for example, requires author-contribution statements, has explicit policies on AI tools (which may not be authors), and sets out expectations for corresponding-author responsibilities and changes to authorship. Other major publishers — Elsevier, Wiley, Springer, Taylor & Francis — publish comparable policies and increasingly request CRediT statements. The practical takeaway is consistent: follow the ICMJE/COPE principles, then meet the specific requirements of your target journal.
Key facts
At a glance
- Baseline: ICMJE four criteria; COPE guidance and flowcharts
- APA: authorship reflects substantial contribution; avoid over/under-inclusion
- JAMA: applies ICMJE criteria; detailed contribution and disclosure forms
- IEEE: publication policy centred on significant intellectual contribution
- Nature: contribution statements; AI tools cannot be authors
- Rule of thumb: follow ICMJE/COPE, then the target journal’s own policy
Common questions
FAQ
What are authorship guidelines?+
They are the published policies that define who may be an author of a research output and how authorship and contributions must be reported. The most influential are the ICMJE Recommendations and COPE guidance, alongside style-body and publisher policies.
Which authorship guidelines should I follow?+
Follow the core ICMJE and COPE principles, then meet the specific requirements of your target journal or publisher, which take precedence and may add their own contribution-statement, disclosure and AI-use rules.
Do APA and ICMJE authorship guidelines agree?+
They share the same foundation — authorship requires a substantial contribution and accountability — but differ in wording and emphasis. The ICMJE sets four explicit criteria; the APA frames authorship within its Publication Manual and ethics code.
What do publisher policies like Nature’s add?+
Publisher policies build on the ICMJE/COPE baseline with specific requirements, such as mandatory author-contribution statements, explicit AI-tool policies, and procedures for corresponding authors and changes to authorship.
Do any guidelines require a CRediT statement?+
A growing number of journals and publishers request or require a CRediT contributor-roles statement alongside the author list, in addition to applying authorship criteria to decide who qualifies as an author.
Going deeper
