In practice — medical research context
When this role applies
Conducting a research and investigation process, specifically performing the experiments, or data/evidence collection. 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 Investigation role connects to the controlled-vocabulary concepts of Reproducible AI experiment, Protocol paper, Sample repository, Biorepository, and Robustness check.
Encoding
Use in your systems
<role vocab="credit"
vocab-identifier="https://casrai.org/credit"
vocab-term="Investigation"
vocab-term-identifier="https://casrai.org/credit/roles/investigation" />{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "DefinedTerm",
"@id": "https://casrai.org/credit/roles/investigation",
"name": "Investigation",
"identifier": "https://casrai.org/credit/roles/investigation",
"description": "Conducting a research and investigation process, specifically performing the experiments, or data/evidence collection.",
"inDefinedTermSet": "https://casrai.org/credit",
"url": "https://casrai.org/credit/roles/investigation",
"license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
"bibliographicCitation": "CASRAI Editorial Board (2026). Investigation — CRediT contributor role (v2022.1). CASRAI. https://casrai.org/credit/roles/investigation",
"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/investigation">Investigation</credit_role>
</credit_roles>
</contributor>Identifiers
Persistent identifiers
| Canonical URI | https://casrai.org/credit/roles/investigation |
| JATS vocab | credit |
| CASRAI PID |
Frequently asked
Common questions about Investigation
- What does the "Investigation" CRediT role mean?
- Conducting a research and investigation process, specifically performing the experiments, or data/evidence collection.
- How do I cite "Investigation" 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 — Investigation". 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 "Investigation"?
- The canonical URI is https://casrai.org/credit/roles/investigation. 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 "Investigation" 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 Investigation 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). Investigation — CRediT contributor role (v2022.1). CASRAI. https://casrai.org/credit/roles/investigation
Vancouver
CASRAI Editorial Board. Investigation — CRediT contributor role [Internet]. CASRAI; 2026 [cited 2026]. Version v2022.1. Available from: https://casrai.org/credit/roles/investigation
Chicago (author-date)
CASRAI Editorial Board. 2026. "Investigation — CRediT contributor role." Version v2022.1. CASRAI. https://casrai.org/credit/roles/investigation.
BibTeX
@misc{casrai_credit_investigation_2026,
author = {{CASRAI Editorial Board}},
title = {{Investigation — CRediT contributor role}},
year = {2026},
version = {v2022.1},
publisher = {CASRAI},
howpublished = {\url{https://casrai.org/credit/roles/investigation}},
note = {Aligned with ANSI/NISO Z39.104-2022. Licensed CC-BY 4.0.}
}Notable examples
Papers exemplifying the Investigation role
These published papers demonstrate the Investigation CRediT role in practice. Each example links to its DOI and explains why the role applies.
Example 1 of 4 Induction of Pluripotent Stem Cells from Mouse Embryonic and Adult Fibroblast Cultures by Defined Factors
Takahashi, K., & Yamanaka, S. · 2006 · Cell · vol. 126 · pp. 663-676
DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2006.07.024
The iPSC discovery paper. The science is fundamentally an investigation result: a systematic screen of 24 candidate factors narrowed to four (Oct3/4, Sox2, c-Myc, Klf4) by direct experimentation. The bulk of the work is bench investigation — culture, transfection, colony selection, validation — and the paper exemplifies CRediT Investigation as the primary engine of an empirically-driven discovery.
Example 2 of 4 A Programmable Dual-RNA-Guided DNA Endonuclease in Adaptive Bacterial Immunity
Jinek, M., Chylinski, K., Fonfara, I., Hauer, M., Doudna, J. A., & Charpentier, E. · 2012 · Science · vol. 337 · pp. 816-821
The Jinek et al. CRISPR-Cas9 paper that turned a bacterial immunity system into a programmable genome-editing tool. The investigation is the heart of the paper: reconstituting Cas9 activity in vitro, mapping the tracrRNA-crRNA-Cas9 complex, and demonstrating programmable DNA cleavage. The Nobel-recognised contribution is the investigative chain of experiments, not the conceptual framework or analysis pipeline.
Example 3 of 4 The 2014 ALMA Long Baseline Campaign: First Results from High Angular Resolution Observations Toward the HL Tau Region
ALMA Partnership, Brogan, C. L., Pérez, L. M., Hunter, T. R., Dent, W. R. F., Bauer, J. R., et al. · 2015 · The Astrophysical Journal Letters · vol. 808 · pp. L3
DOI: 10.1088/2041-8205/808/1/L3
The HL Tau ringed protoplanetary disc image — investigation in observational astronomy in its purest form. The paper documents the acquisition campaign: telescope time, calibration, raw data collection. The scientific contribution is the observation itself, made possible by the investigation team operating the ALMA array. CRediT Investigation distinguishes this from the analysis and software roles attributable to other authors.
Example 4 of 4illustrative A New Twenty-First Century Science for Effective Epidemic Response
Bedford, J., Farrar, J., Ihekweazu, C., Kang, G., Koopmans, M., & Nkengasong, J. · 2019 · Nature · vol. 575 · pp. 130-136
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-019-1717-y
Field-epidemiology and outbreak-response papers are exemplars of investigation in the public-health sense — sample collection, contact tracing, on-the-ground evidence gathering under emergency conditions. CRediT Investigation is the natural attribution for the named investigators who performed the front-line work, distinct from supervisory or formal-analysis roles held by team leads in the same paper.
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 Investigation 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
- Enquête(Français)fr
- Investigación(Español)es
- Investigação(Português)pt-BR
- 研究调查(中文)zh
- 調査・実施(日本語)ja
All translations are community drafts. CRediT has not been officially translated by NISO.
Dictionary
Related CASRAI Dictionary terms
The Investigation 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 Investigation — by publisher
The Investigation role is collected by the major publishers that have adopted CRediT portfolio-wide. See how each implements the taxonomy in their submission systems:
Related
