For publishers
Adopting CRediT in your workflow
What's needed to support CRediT properly: structured capture at submission, JATS XML output, Crossref deposit, downstream ORCID propagation, and scorecard transparency.
The structured-vs-narrative distinction
"Support for CRediT" varies widely. The minimum bar is collecting a narrative CRediT paragraph at submission and printing it in the article. The high bar is structured collection (per-author role pickers in submission UI), JATS XML output with vocab-term-identifier attributes pointing at canonical NISO URIs, and downstream propagation to Crossref + ORCID.
CASRAI's publisher scorecard measures publishers against the high bar. The goal is not to shame — it's to make implementation depth visible so the field improves.
Submission system integration
The major submission systems already support CRediT capture:
- Editorial Manager (Aries Systems) — full CRediT support; used by Elsevier, Wiley, T&F, OUP, SAGE, and most society publishers
- ScholarOne (Clarivate) — CRediT support; used by Wiley, T&F, OUP, SAGE
- PubSweet / Coko — CRediT-aware open-source stack; used by eLife
- Open Journal Systems (PKP) — CRediT plugin available; broad use across open-access journals
- Scholastica — CRediT-aware with structured JATS export
JATS XML output
JATS 1.2+ supports CRediT natively via the <role> element. See our JATS implementation guide for the full markup pattern. Every role should carry:
vocab="credit"vocab-identifier="https://casrai.org/credit"vocab-term— the human-readable namevocab-term-identifier— the canonical NISO URIspecific-use— optional lead / equal / supporting
Crossref deposit
Crossref schema 5.5 (introduced 2024) carries CRediT in the contributor element. See our Crossref deposit guide. Depositing CRediT here propagates the roles through Crossref Event Data and downstream tools (Dimensions, Lens, OpenAlex, ROR-Funder lookups).
ORCID propagation
When a CRediT-tagged work is deposited to Crossref with an ORCID iD on each contributor, the per-role attribution propagates automatically into each author's ORCID record via the standard works-feed pipeline. This is the closed-loop value: an early-career researcher can demonstrate "Investigation: lead on 12 papers" rather than just "author on 12 papers." That argument matters at tenure committees, funder evaluation panels, and hiring.
Peer review credit
CRediT does not currently include a role for peer reviewers — this is a known gap that the NISO Standing Committee is addressing. In the interim, peer-review attribution is captured separately via Web of Science Reviewer Recognition, Reviewer Credits, or ORCID's peer-review records.
Acknowledged contributors
Most publishers apply CRediT only to named authors. Extending it to acknowledged contributors (medical writers, technical staff, postdocs below the authorship bar) is the largest known gap in current implementation. We encourage publishers to capture acknowledged-contributor CRediT in the acknowledgements section even if your submission system doesn't yet support structured capture there.
Self-assess against the scorecard
Our publisher scorecard lets you assess your current CRediT implementation depth and identify the next improvement. Submit your self-assessment to be listed publicly.
