Author FAQ

CRediT is a controlled vocabulary of 14 contributor roles formalised as ANSI/NISO Z39.104-2022 and stewarded by NISO. Each role has a canonical definition, a stable URL identifier, and a JATS XML mapping. See the roles index for the full list.

No. CRediT records what people did; the ICMJE Vancouver criteria remain the operative test for who qualifies as an author in biomedical fields. CRediT supplements the author line; it does not displace it.

Only the roles each author actually performed. An author may hold a single role, several, or all fourteen. Roles not performed are simply omitted.

CRediT supports an optional degree qualifier (lead / equal / supporting), encoded in JATS via the specific-use attribute. It is widely available in submission systems but rarely required, so most published statements omit it. Use it where the publisher accepts it; it adds genuine signal.

No. CRediT does not address author order. First-author / last-author / corresponding-author conventions remain governed by disciplinary norms and the journal’s instructions to authors.

The current taxonomy does not include a peer-review role. The Standing Committee has discussed it with NISO’s peer-review track; no formal extension has been adopted. Interim recognition options live on the peer-review credit page.

In principle yes, in practice rarely. Most publishers apply CRediT only to named authors. Acknowledged-contributor support is on the Standing Committee’s agenda; until then we recommend a separate Acknowledgements paragraph naming the contributor and the work performed, alongside the CRediT statement.

Yes, if the use is substantive. ICMJE, COPE, Nature Portfolio, NEJM, Lancet, BMJ and JAMA all require disclosure of generative AI use in manuscript preparation. Spell-checkers, grammar tools, and reference managers are typically exempt. See the AI disclosure guide for the full comparison.

No. ICMJE, COPE, Nature Portfolio and NEJM all prohibit listing AI tools as authors because they cannot take accountability for the work.

Most journals expect the disclosure in the Methods section. NEJM additionally requires it in the cover letter. Nature Portfolio prohibits AI-generated images entirely (with narrow exceptions). Always check the journal’s instructions to authors.

No. CRediT is a vocabulary for contributors — agents that can be held accountable. AI tools are tools. They are disclosed separately, alongside (not instead of) the CRediT contributor statement.

A free-text CV format organised around four contribution modules — generation of knowledge, development of individuals, the wider research community, and broader society. The UKRI R4RI has been mandatory across UKRI applications since January 2024. Wellcome, the Royal Society, the NIH Biosketch, and a growing number of European funders use closely-related formats. See the narrative-CV guide.

CRediT data harvested from your publications populates the “contributions to the generation of knowledge” module with specific, defensible claims (“led methodology on X papers, conducted investigation on Y”) rather than raw publication counts. Institutional CRIS pipelines that aggregate CRediT into researcher profiles make this concrete.

They sit alongside them. Most funders still ask for selected publications. The narrative module provides the interpretive frame; the publication list provides the evidence base.

For most journals and funders, yes. ORCID is the canonical persistent identifier for researchers and is required by UKRI, NIH, Wellcome, and most major publishers. Register at orcid.org.

ROR (Research Organization Registry) provides persistent identifiers for research organisations. You don’t register an ROR personally; your institution has one already. Use it in your affiliation metadata. See the PID guide.

The publisher needs to (a) capture CRediT in structured form at submission, (b) emit it in JATS XML with the canonical NISO URIs, and (c) deposit it to Crossref alongside your ORCID iD. Where all three happen, ORCID ingests the data automatically. See the publisher scorecard for who does the full pipeline.

Yes. The two address different questions. ICMJE defines the qualifications for authorship; CRediT describes the specific contributions of those who qualify. Most biomedical journals now require both.

Not under the ICMJE criteria on its own. ICMJE requires substantial contributions to conception or design, data acquisition or analysis, or drafting or revising the work, plus final approval and accountability. CRediT records what you did; ICMJE decides whether what you did clears the authorship bar.

The ICMJE Recommendations for the conduct, reporting, editing and publication of scholarly work in medical journals. Section II.A. on authorship and contributorship is the canonical text.