Guide
CRediT publisher adoption
CRediT adoption has grown from a handful of pilot journals in 2014 to more than 1,400 journals across major publishers. This guide covers which publishers require, encourage, or support CRediT statements, and how to comply.
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.
Elsevier
Elsevier was among the earliest major publishers to mandate CRediT, piloting structured contributor statements from around 2015 across a selection of journals and progressively expanding to the broader portfolio. Many Elsevier journals now require a CRediT statement as a condition of submission, captured through the EVISE or Editorial Manager submission systems. Authors select roles from a checklist interface, and the system generates the formatted statement that appears in the published article. Elsevier's author guidelines typically describe CRediT as "Author contributions" in the submission checklist.
Springer Nature and Nature Portfolio
Springer Nature requires CRediT author contributions statements for the Nature family of journals, including Nature, Nature Medicine, Nature Communications, and hundreds of other titles. The Nature Portfolio adopted structured CRediT capture as a standard requirement across its flagship titles from 2020. Springer Nature titles outside the Nature portfolio vary by journal — check individual author guidelines. Submissions are handled through nature.com's manuscript system and the Research Square preprint server, both of which support structured role capture.
Wiley, PLOS, Frontiers, and MDPI
Wiley supports CRediT across many journals in its portfolio, with some titles making it mandatory and others encouraging it. PLOS was one of the earliest adopters of CRediT, piloting structured statements alongside the Allen et al. taxonomy study in 2014; all PLOS journals now require CRediT statements at submission. Frontiers mandates CRediT across all its journals via its submission portal. MDPI similarly requires contributor role statements for all its journals as part of the manuscript template. Taylor and Francis has incorporated CRediT as optional or required across many Taylor and Francis and Routledge journals depending on discipline.
Medical publishers and specialist journals
The BMJ Group, BMC (Springer Nature), and BioMed Central have integrated CRediT into their submission requirements, reflecting medical publishing's long engagement with the ICMJE contributorship framework. The American Chemical Society (ACS), American Physical Society (APS), Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) have all added CRediT support across their portfolios, with varying levels of mandate. Journals published by learned societies and university presses have adopted CRediT more variably; adoption is accelerating but not yet universal.
Technical implementation: JATS XML and CrossRef
Behind the submission portal interface, CRediT data is encoded in JATS (Journal Article Tag Suite) XML using the <role> element with vocab="credit" and a vocab-identifier pointing to the canonical URI at casrai.org/credit/roles/<slug>. This structured data flows from the publisher's production system into CrossRef's article metadata, so each DOI record carries machine-readable contributor role information. CrossRef makes this data available via its REST API and the Metadata Plus service. ORCID consumes CRediT data from publisher assertion files to populate researcher profiles automatically.
Key facts
At a glance
- Scale: 1,400+ journals had adopted CRediT as of 2024
- Major adopters: Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley, PLOS, Frontiers, MDPI, Taylor & Francis, BMJ, ACS
- NISO 2022: ANSI/NISO Z39.104-2022 standardisation accelerated publisher mandate adoption
- Systems: Editorial Manager, ScholarOne, EVISE, Frontiers portal — all support CRediT
- XML: JATS <role vocab="credit"> element carries structured data downstream
- CrossRef: DOI metadata includes CRediT roles via Crossref REST API
- ORCID: Publisher assertions auto-populate researcher ORCID records with roles
- Variation: mandatory vs encouraged varies by publisher and individual journal
Common misconceptions
What people often get wrong
Often heard: If a journal does not mention CRediT in its guidelines, you cannot include a statement.
Actually: You can include a CRediT statement voluntarily in the manuscript even if not required. Most editors will accept it; some may not format it consistently. It is always worth adding.
Often heard: All journals from a given publisher have identical CRediT requirements.
Actually: Requirements vary by journal within the same publishing house. Always check the individual journal's author guidelines rather than assuming publisher-level policy applies uniformly.
Often heard: CRediT is only relevant for biomedical journals.
Actually: CRediT is designed for all scholarly disciplines and is adopted across chemistry, physics, engineering, social sciences, and humanities journals, not only biomedicine.
Common questions
FAQ
How do I find out if a specific journal requires CRediT?+
Check the journal's official author guidelines or instructions for authors page. Search for "author contributions", "contributor roles", or "CRediT". If not mentioned, check the submission system for role-assignment fields.
What happens if I submit without a CRediT statement to a journal that requires one?+
The submission system may block progression without completing role fields, or the manuscript may be returned by the editorial office with a request to add the statement before peer review begins.
Does publisher adoption of CRediT affect how my paper is indexed?+
Yes. If the publisher encodes CRediT roles in JATS XML and registers them with CrossRef, your contribution roles appear in CrossRef metadata. ORCID can then import those roles automatically, enriching your researcher profile with role-specific attribution.
