For researchers
Writing a CRediT contributor statement
What to include, how to assign roles, what the optional 'lead / equal / supporting' qualifier does, and how CRediT relates to ICMJE authorship criteria.
When to write one
Major publishers (PLOS, eLife, Cell Press, Elsevier, Wiley, Springer Nature, MDPI, Frontiers, T&F, SAGE, OUP, CUP) collect CRediT statements at submission. Many now require structured CRediT metadata rather than just a narrative paragraph.
Step-by-step
- List authors in your submission system as you would normally.
- For each author, pick one or more of the 14 roles that describe their contribution. You do not need to use all 14.
- Optionally add a degree qualifier per role: lead, equal, or supporting.
- Include acknowledged contributors (medical writers, technical staff, postdocs who contributed below the authorship bar) in the acknowledgements section with their CRediT roles, even if the publisher's structured form only captures author CRediT.
Example statement
For a 5-author medical-research paper, an exemplary CRediT statement reads:
Zhang San: Conceptualization (lead), Methodology, Writing — original draft. Priya Patel: Data curation (lead), Investigation, Writing — review & editing. Erin Wright: Visualization, Investigation. Adam Lloyd: Supervision, Software (lead), Validation. Maria García-López: Writing — review & editing, Funding acquisition.
CRediT vs ICMJE authorship criteria
The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors' (ICMJE) Vancouver criteria define who qualifies as an author. CRediT defines what each author did. The two are complementary, not competing — and major medical journals (NEJM, Lancet, JAMA, BMJ) collect both. For the eligibility side in depth, see the authorship criteria and the contributorship model that CRediT operationalises.
Authors who also edit or lead a CRediT-implementing journal can establish an ORCID-verified profile in the Verified Contributor Directory, recording their editorial contribution roles alongside their authored work.
Disclosing AI use
Generative AI tools (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, etc.) cannot be listed as CRediT contributors. They are not contributors — they are tools. Disclose AI use as a separate statement; see our AI-disclosure guidance.
Sample machine-readable encoding
<contrib contrib-type="author">
<name><surname>Zhang</surname><given-names>San</given-names></name>
<contrib-id contrib-id-type="orcid">0000-0001-2345-6789</contrib-id>
<role vocab="credit" vocab-identifier="https://casrai.org/credit"
vocab-term="Conceptualization"
vocab-term-identifier="https://casrai.org/credit/roles/conceptualization"
specific-use="lead"/>
<role vocab="credit" vocab-identifier="https://casrai.org/credit"
vocab-term="Methodology"
vocab-term-identifier="https://casrai.org/credit/roles/methodology"/>
<role vocab="credit" vocab-identifier="https://casrai.org/credit"
vocab-term="Writing - original draft"
vocab-term-identifier="https://casrai.org/credit/roles/writing-original-draft"/>
</contrib>Further reading
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.
