Writing — original draft

In practice — medical research context

When this role applies

Encoding

Use in your systems

<role vocab="credit"
      vocab-identifier="https://casrai.org/credit"
      vocab-term="Writing — original draft"
      vocab-term-identifier="https://casrai.org/credit/roles/writing-original-draft" />

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "DefinedTerm",
  "@id": "https://casrai.org/credit/roles/writing-original-draft",
  "name": "Writing — original draft",
  "identifier": "https://casrai.org/credit/roles/writing-original-draft",
  "description": "Preparation, creation and/or presentation of the published work, specifically writing the initial draft (including substantive translation).",
  "inDefinedTermSet": "https://casrai.org/credit",
  "url": "https://casrai.org/credit/roles/writing-original-draft",
  "license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "bibliographicCitation": "CASRAI Editorial Board (2026). Writing — original draft — CRediT contributor role (v2022.1). CASRAI. https://casrai.org/credit/roles/writing-original-draft",
  "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/writing-original-draft">Writing — original draft</credit_role>
  </credit_roles>
</contributor>

Identifiers

Persistent identifiers

Frequently asked

Common questions about Writing — original draft

What does the "Writing — original draft" CRediT role mean?

Preparation, creation and/or presentation of the published work, specifically writing the initial draft (including substantive translation).

How do I cite "Writing — original draft" 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 — Writing — original draft". 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 "Writing — original draft"?

The canonical URI is https://casrai.org/credit/roles/writing-original-draft. 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 "Writing — original draft" 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 Writing — original draft 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.

CASRAI Editorial Board (2026). Writing — original draft — CRediT contributor role (v2022.1). CASRAI. https://casrai.org/credit/roles/writing-original-draft

CASRAI Editorial Board. Writing — original draft — CRediT contributor role [Internet]. CASRAI; 2026 [cited 2026]. Version v2022.1. Available from: https://casrai.org/credit/roles/writing-original-draft

CASRAI Editorial Board. 2026. "Writing — original draft — CRediT contributor role." Version v2022.1. CASRAI. https://casrai.org/credit/roles/writing-original-draft.

@misc{casrai_credit_writing_original_draft_2026,
  author       = {{CASRAI Editorial Board}},
  title        = {{Writing — original draft — CRediT contributor role}},
  year         = {2026},
  version      = {v2022.1},
  publisher    = {CASRAI},
  howpublished = {\url{https://casrai.org/credit/roles/writing-original-draft}},
  note         = {Aligned with ANSI/NISO Z39.104-2022. Licensed CC-BY 4.0.}
}

Notable examples

Papers exemplifying the Writing — original draft role

These published papers demonstrate the Writing — original draft CRediT role in practice. Each example links to its DOI and explains why the role applies.

1. Example 1 of 4illustrative

   Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid

   Watson, J. D., & Crick, F. H. C. · 1953 · Nature · vol. 171 · pp. 737-738

   DOI: 10.1038/171737a0

   A 900-word two-author letter to Nature. The writing of the original draft is inseparable from the authorship: both Watson and Crick are documented to have written sections of the manuscript, with Crick credited for the precise phrasing of the closing paragraph. A canonical example of two-author original-draft writing, useful as a counter-example to high-author-count modern papers where the role must be made explicit.

2. Example 2 of 4

   Safety and Efficacy of the BNT162b2 mRNA Covid-19 Vaccine

   Polack, F. P., Thomas, S. J., Kitchin, N., Absalon, J., Gurtman, A., Lockhart, S., et al. · 2020 · New England Journal of Medicine · vol. 383 · pp. 2603-2615

   DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa2034577

   The pivotal Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine trial — NEJM publishes detailed CRediT statements. The Writing — Original Draft role is concentrated in a small subset of the author list (typically lead investigator and medical writer), separable from the broader Investigation contributions. NEJM's adoption of CRediT-style statements means readers can see exactly who wrote the manuscript versus who ran the trial.

3. Example 3 of 4illustrative

   Highly Accurate Protein Structure Prediction with AlphaFold

   Jumper, J., Evans, R., Pritzel, A., Green, T., Figurnov, M., Ronneberger, O., et al. · 2021 · Nature · vol. 596 · pp. 583-589

   DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03819-2

   AlphaFold's authorship list contains 30+ contributors with markedly different roles. The Writing — Original Draft contribution attaches to a subset of authors who composed the initial manuscript text. CRediT makes the writing contribution attributable separately from methodology, software, and supervision contributions on the same paper — a precise mapping of "who wrote what" versus "who did what".

4. Example 4 of 4

   Estimating the Reproducibility of Psychological Science

   Open Science Collaboration · 2015 · Science · vol. 349 · pp. aac4716

   DOI: 10.1126/science.aac4716

   A 270-author validation paper. Writing — Original Draft cannot meaningfully apply to all 270; CRediT makes it attributable to the specific small subset of authors who drafted the manuscript. The paper is an exemplary case for why role-level granularity matters in large collaborations and why CRediT Writing — Original Draft is a separable, named role.

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 Writing — original draft 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
• Rédaction — version initiale(Français)fr
• Redacción — borrador original(Español)es
• Redação — rascunho original(Português)pt-BR
• 撰写——初稿(中文)zh
• 執筆 — 原案(日本語)ja

All translations are community drafts. CRediT has not been officially translated by NISO.

Dictionary

Related CASRAI Dictionary terms

The Writing — original draft 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 Writing — original draft — by publisher

The Writing — original draft role is collected by the major publishers that have adopted CRediT portfolio-wide. See how each implements the taxonomy in their submission systems:

Related

Continue with CRediT