In practice — medical research context
When this role applies
Application of statistical, mathematical, computational, or other formal techniques to analyse or synthesise study data. In biomedical and clinical-research contexts, this role typically attaches to the team member(s) who shaped the corresponding aspect of the work — distinct from acknowledgement of those who contributed materials, technical service, or general support.
Authors may hold multiple CRediT roles on a single paper. The optional degree qualifier (lead / equal / supporting) clarifies relative responsibility when several authors share a role.
In the CASRAI Dictionary, the Formal analysis role connects to the controlled-vocabulary concepts of Pre-analysis plan, Meta-analysis, Multiverse analysis, Many-analysts study, and Statistical consultancy.
Encoding
Use in your systems
<role vocab="credit"
vocab-identifier="https://casrai.org/credit"
vocab-term="Formal analysis"
vocab-term-identifier="https://casrai.org/credit/roles/formal-analysis" />{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "DefinedTerm",
"@id": "https://casrai.org/credit/roles/formal-analysis",
"name": "Formal analysis",
"identifier": "https://casrai.org/credit/roles/formal-analysis",
"description": "Application of statistical, mathematical, computational, or other formal techniques to analyse or synthesise study data.",
"inDefinedTermSet": "https://casrai.org/credit",
"url": "https://casrai.org/credit/roles/formal-analysis",
"license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
"bibliographicCitation": "CASRAI Editorial Board (2026). Formal analysis — CRediT contributor role (v2022.1). CASRAI. https://casrai.org/credit/roles/formal-analysis",
"citation": "https://casrai.org/credit/citation",
"dateModified": "2022-08-01",
"version": "2022.1",
"inLanguage": "en",
"audience": {
"@type": "Audience",
"audienceType": "Researchers, editors, publishers, librarians"
}
}<contributor sequence="additional" contributor_role="author">
<given_name>Jane</given_name>
<surname>Doe</surname>
<ORCID>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-XXXX-XXXX</ORCID>
<credit_roles>
<credit_role vocab-term-identifier="https://casrai.org/credit/roles/formal-analysis">Formal analysis</credit_role>
</credit_roles>
</contributor>Identifiers
Persistent identifiers
| Canonical URI | https://casrai.org/credit/roles/formal-analysis |
| JATS vocab | credit |
| CASRAI PID |
Frequently asked
Common questions about Formal analysis
- What does the "Formal analysis" CRediT role mean?
- Application of statistical, mathematical, computational, or other formal techniques to analyse or synthesise study data.
- How do I cite "Formal analysis" in an author contribution statement?
- Per ANSI/NISO Z39.104-2022, list the contributor's name followed by their CRediT role(s). Example: "A. Smith — Formal analysis". You can add an optional degree qualifier (lead / equal / supporting) when several authors share a role. See CASRAI's author-statement guidance at https://casrai.org/credit/for-authors for templates and worked examples.
- What is the canonical machine-readable URI for "Formal analysis"?
- The canonical URI is https://casrai.org/credit/roles/formal-analysis. Use this in JATS XML (vocab-term-identifier), Crossref deposits (credit_role), JSON-LD (sameAs), and any system that stores contributor metadata. CASRAI's encoding guides cover JATS, Crossref Schema 5.5, and JSON-LD at https://casrai.org/credit/jats and https://casrai.org/credit/json-ld.
- Can one author hold "Formal analysis" plus other CRediT roles?
- Yes — CRediT roles are not mutually exclusive. A single contributor typically holds 3–4 roles. The optional "lead / equal / supporting" qualifier clarifies the contributor's relative responsibility within each role they share with others.
Cite this role
Cite the Formal analysis role
These citations reference this specific role page as a standards-body definition aligned with ANSI/NISO Z39.104-2022. For guidance on citing CRediT generally, the underlying standard, or worked statement examples, see How to cite CRediT.
APA 7
CASRAI Editorial Board (2026). Formal analysis — CRediT contributor role (v2022.1). CASRAI. https://casrai.org/credit/roles/formal-analysis
Vancouver
CASRAI Editorial Board. Formal analysis — CRediT contributor role [Internet]. CASRAI; 2026 [cited 2026]. Version v2022.1. Available from: https://casrai.org/credit/roles/formal-analysis
Chicago (author-date)
CASRAI Editorial Board. 2026. "Formal analysis — CRediT contributor role." Version v2022.1. CASRAI. https://casrai.org/credit/roles/formal-analysis.
BibTeX
@misc{casrai_credit_formal_analysis_2026,
author = {{CASRAI Editorial Board}},
title = {{Formal analysis — CRediT contributor role}},
year = {2026},
version = {v2022.1},
publisher = {CASRAI},
howpublished = {\url{https://casrai.org/credit/roles/formal-analysis}},
note = {Aligned with ANSI/NISO Z39.104-2022. Licensed CC-BY 4.0.}
}Notable examples
Papers exemplifying the Formal analysis role
These published papers demonstrate the Formal analysis CRediT role in practice. Each example links to its DOI and explains why the role applies.
Example 1 of 4illustrative Broken Symmetries and the Masses of Gauge Bosons
Higgs, P. W. · 1964 · Physical Review Letters · vol. 13 · pp. 508-509
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.13.508
A pure formal-analysis paper. Higgs applied symmetry-breaking mathematics to gauge field theory and derived the mass-acquisition mechanism for vector bosons. The contribution is entirely formal: no data, no experiment — application of mathematical technique to existing theoretical structure to extract a specific, falsifiable physical prediction. This is the textbook shape of CRediT Formal Analysis in theoretical physics.
Example 2 of 4 Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Black Hole Merger
Abbott, B. P., et al. (LIGO Scientific Collaboration and Virgo Collaboration) · 2016 · Physical Review Letters · vol. 116 · pp. 061102
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.061102
The first direct detection of gravitational waves. While the paper has Investigation, Methodology, and many other roles, its visible contribution to the field is the formal-analysis pipeline — matched filtering against template waveforms, statistical significance calculation, parameter estimation. The detection only exists because of formal techniques applied to the strain data; the role is central to large-collaboration physics papers.
Example 3 of 4 Regression Shrinkage and Selection via the Lasso
Tibshirani, R. · 1996 · Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series B · vol. 58 · pp. 267-288
DOI: 10.1111/j.2517-6161.1996.tb02080.x
A foundational formal-analysis methodology paper. Tibshirani introduces the LASSO — L1-penalised regression — as a formal technique for simultaneous variable selection and shrinkage. The paper is a pure exercise in applying statistical and mathematical formal techniques to a data-analysis problem, and it has been cited in tens of thousands of downstream formal-analysis sections.
Example 4 of 4illustrative Quantum Supremacy Using a Programmable Superconducting Processor
Arute, F., Arya, K., Babbush, R., Bacon, D., Bardin, J. C., Barends, R., et al. · 2019 · Nature · vol. 574 · pp. 505-510
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-019-1666-5
Google's quantum-supremacy paper is heavily dependent on formal analysis: the demonstration rests on statistical comparison of sampled bitstring distributions against classical-simulation lower bounds, with cross-entropy benchmarking as the formal criterion. The contestable scientific claim is a formal-analysis result, not a raw observation — exactly the kind of paper where a CRediT Formal Analysis attribution carries real weight.
Examples curated by the CASRAI editorial board. Inclusion is illustrative of the role, not an endorsement of methodology or claims. Pre-CRediT-era papers are flagged illustrative.
Translations
Available in
The canonical, normative version of Formal analysis is this English page (ANSI/NISO Z39.104-2022). Community-drafted translations are available below for working reference; the English text prevails in case of any divergence.
- English (canonical)en-GB
- Analyse formelle(Français)fr
- Análisis formal(Español)es
- Análise formal(Português)pt-BR
- 形式化分析(中文)zh
- 形式的分析(日本語)ja
All translations are community drafts. CRediT has not been officially translated by NISO.
Dictionary
Related CASRAI Dictionary terms
The Formal analysis role connects to these CASRAI Dictionary terms — the controlled-vocabulary concepts a contributor in this role typically works with. Each links to its canonical definition with worked examples and machine-readable encodings.
Adoption
Who collects Formal analysis — by publisher
The Formal analysis role is collected by the major publishers that have adopted CRediT portfolio-wide. See how each implements the taxonomy in their submission systems:
Related
