Definition · Plain-language
History of the CRediT taxonomy
The Contributor Roles Taxonomy (CRediT) was originated by CASRAI and Harvard University in 2014, formalised through a Nature commentary and pilot journals, and standardised as ANSI/NISO Z39.104-2022 by NISO in 2022.
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.
Pre-history: the contributorship problem (1990s–2012)
Concern about the inadequacy of author lists as a description of research contribution was not new in 2014. The ICMJE Vancouver Recommendations introduced contributorship language in 1997, acknowledging that modern science involved more types of contribution than the traditional author-list model could capture. In 1997, Drummond Rennie and colleagues published an influential JAMA editorial calling for journals to publish detailed contribution statements. Throughout the 2000s, journals experimented with contributorship notes, but without a shared vocabulary, descriptions were inconsistent and machine-readable attribution remained impossible.
The 2012–2014 Harvard workshop and CASRAI involvement
CASRAI (Consortia Advancing Standards in Research Administration) convened a series of workshops beginning in 2012, working with Harvard University's Office for Scholarly Communication. Key participants included publishers (PLOS, Cell Press, Wellcome Trust, Elsevier), information scientists, librarians, and research administrators. The workshops systematically mapped the landscape of contributor roles in scholarly research and converged on a 14-role taxonomy. Amy Brand (Harvard), Liz Allen (Wellcome Trust), Micah Altman (MIT), Marjorie Hlava (Access Innovations), and Jo Scott (Cranfield University) were central contributors. The resulting taxonomy was designed to be minimal (14 roles — enough to cover distinct contribution types without becoming unwieldy), standardised (role names and definitions fixed), and extensible (future revision via formal standards process).
Publication and early adoption (2014–2021)
The CRediT taxonomy was formally published in April 2014 in a Nature commentary: Brand A, Allen L, Altman M, Hlava M, Scott J. "Beyond authorship: attribution, contribution, collaboration, and credit." Nature 508:312–313. doi:10.1038/508312a. PLOS was among the first major journals to pilot CRediT statements alongside publication. Cell Press, Wellcome Trust, and CASRAI partnered for the pilot phase. Throughout 2015–2021, adoption spread across Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley, Frontiers, and beyond. CASRAI stewarded the vocabulary, maintained the canonical namespace at casrai.org/credit/, and coordinated with publishers, CrossRef, and ORCID on implementation.
NISO standardisation (2022 and beyond)
In 2021, NISO undertook the process of formalising CRediT as an American national standard. The NISO CRediT Standing Committee, convened in 2021, reviewed the vocabulary, confirmed the 14 roles and definitions, and produced the draft standard. ANSI approved it on 14 January 2022; NISO published it on 8 February 2022 as ANSI/NISO Z39.104-2022. The standard is published under CC BY 4.0, making it freely usable. Stewardship of the standard passed from CASRAI to NISO. The Standing Committee remains active and handles requests for future evolution of the standard. The canonical URI namespace (casrai.org/credit/roles/) was retained for continuity.
Key facts
At a glance
- Pre-history: ICMJE Vancouver Recommendations (1997) introduced contributorship concept
- Workshop: CASRAI + Harvard convened workshops from 2012
- Key people: Amy Brand, Liz Allen, Micah Altman, Marjorie Hlava, Jo Scott
- Publication: Nature commentary, April 2014 (doi:10.1038/508312a)
- Early adopters: PLOS, Cell Press, Elsevier, Wellcome Trust (from 2014)
- CASRAI role: stewarded the vocabulary 2014–2021; originated and maintained casrai.org/credit
- NISO standard: ANSI/NISO Z39.104-2022, approved January 2022, published February 2022
- Licence: CC BY 4.0 — freely usable
Common misconceptions
What people often get wrong
Often heard: CASRAI invented CRediT unilaterally and gave it to NISO.
Actually: CRediT was co-developed through collaborative workshops involving publishers, funders, librarians, and information scientists convened by CASRAI and Harvard. NISO subsequently standardised it through its own formal process with broad community input.
Often heard: The 2022 NISO standard changed the 14 CRediT roles significantly.
Actually: ANSI/NISO Z39.104-2022 retained the 14 roles and their definitions from the original 2014 vocabulary with only minor clarifications. The standardisation process confirmed rather than revised the core taxonomy.
Often heard: CASRAI is still the steward of the CRediT standard.
Actually: NISO is the steward of the CRediT standard as ANSI/NISO Z39.104-2022. CASRAI originated the taxonomy and maintained the original vocabulary; NISO holds formal stewardship of the 2022 standard.
Common questions
FAQ
Who were the key individuals behind CRediT?+
The five authors of the 2014 Nature commentary are considered the originators: Amy Brand (Harvard), Liz Allen (Wellcome Trust), Micah Altman (MIT), Marjorie Hlava (Access Innovations), and Jo Scott (Cranfield University). Many others contributed through the CASRAI workshop process, including Tim Brody (EPSRC/University of Southampton) and Catriona MacCallum (PLOS).
Is the original 2014 Nature commentary freely available?+
The Nature commentary is available at doi.org/10.1038/508312a. A detailed research paper by Allen et al. describing the taxonomy development and first pilot results was published in 2015 in Learned Publishing (doi.org/10.1087/20150211).
What does the NISO CRediT Standing Committee do?+
The NISO CRediT Standing Committee monitors use of the standard, responds to queries about role interpretation, and manages any future revision process. Proposed changes to the standard would go through the NISO balloting process, which requires broad consensus.
