An author contribution statement example for a case report should list only the roles that genuinely apply to one or two authors — typically conceptualisation, investigation, and writing — rather than force-fitting all fourteen CRediT categories built for large research teams. For a sole author, a single sentence confirming full responsibility across the applicable roles satisfies both journal policy and ICMJE authorship criteria.
An author contribution statement is a short, published declaration — separate from the acknowledgements — that specifies which named author performed which part of the research and writing. Below is a practical, minimal-author template for case reports, built around the taxonomy’s actual scope rather than a mechanical checklist.
- What is an author contribution statement, and why do case reports struggle with it?
- How do you write a single-author case report contribution statement?
- How do you split CRediT roles between two authors in a case report?
- Which journals require this, and in what format?
- Common questions on author contribution statements
- What this means for case report authors and editors
What is an author contribution statement, and why do case reports struggle with it?
An author contribution statement is a brief, structured account — usually one to three sentences per author — of who conceived, conducted, and wrote a published work. CASRAI originated the CRediT contributor role taxonomy in 2014, and the standard is now stewarded by NISO as ANSI/NISO Z39.104-2022, defining fourteen discrete contributor roles: Conceptualization, Data Curation, Formal Analysis, Funding Acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Project Administration, Resources, Software, Supervision, Validation, Visualization, Writing – Original Draft, and Writing – Review & Editing.
The taxonomy was designed for multi-author, multi-institution collaborations where credit disputes and hidden labour are real risks. A single-author case report has no such dispute to resolve — one person, by definition, performed every applicable role. Forcing all fourteen categories onto one or two names produces a statement that reads as padding rather than disclosure, which is precisely the awkward fit this template addresses.
How do you write a single-author case report contribution statement?
For a sole-author case report, the statement should confirm that the author meets the ICMJE authorship criteria in full, without listing categories that plainly do not apply (Software, Funding Acquisition, and Project Administration are the ones most often irrelevant to a single clinical case). The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors requires that every listed author:
- Made a substantial contribution to the conception, design, acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of the case;
- Drafted the work or revised it critically for important intellectual content;
- Approved the final version for publication; and
- Agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work’s accuracy and integrity.
A minimal, publication-ready example: “The author conceived the case report, collected and interpreted the clinical data, drafted the manuscript, and approved the final version for submission.” A CRediT-tagged variant works equally well: “Author Name: Conceptualization, Investigation, Writing – Original Draft, Writing – Review & Editing.” Both versions satisfy journal policy; the second is preferable where the target journal explicitly asks for CRediT-labelled statements rather than free text.
How do you split CRediT roles between two authors in a case report?
With two authors — commonly a treating clinician and a co-author handling the literature review or write-up — the statement should separate clinical-care roles from writing roles rather than duplicating the full taxonomy for each name. This keeps the statement honest: a supervising consultant who reviewed but did not draft the manuscript should not appear under Writing – Original Draft.
| CRediT role | Typical applicability to a case report | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Conceptualization | Applies | Identifying the case as reportable |
| Investigation | Applies | Clinical assessment, data gathering |
| Writing – Original Draft | Applies | Usually one named drafting author |
| Writing – Review & Editing | Applies | Supervising or co-author input |
| Supervision | Rarely applies | Only where a senior author directed the case work |
| Validation | Rarely applies | Relevant only if data required independent checking |
| Data Curation | Rarely applies | Usually not distinct from Investigation in a case report |
| Software, Funding Acquisition, Project Administration, Resources, Formal Analysis, Visualization, Methodology | Usually N/A | Omit rather than force-fit for a single case |
Example two-author statement: “Dr A managed the patient, conceived the report, and revised the manuscript critically. Dr B conducted the literature review and drafted the manuscript. Both authors approved the final version and agree to be accountable for its accuracy.” Where a journal mandates CRediT labels specifically, the equivalent tagged form is: “Dr A: Conceptualization, Supervision, Writing – Review & Editing. Dr B: Investigation, Writing – Original Draft.”
Which journals require this, and in what format?
Requirements vary by publisher, and case reports are frequently held to the same policy as full research articles even though the taxonomy was not built with them in mind. Elsevier requires a CRediT author statement for all research articles, including case reports, under its published CRediT author statement policy. JMIR treats the Authors’ Contributions section as optional but recommended, per guidance updated by JMIR Publications on 2 February 2026, while Springer/Nature journals commonly request a free-text statement such as “all authors contributed to the study conception and design,” without mandating the full fourteen-role CRediT format.
| Publisher / body | Statement required? | Format |
|---|---|---|
| Elsevier | Mandatory | CRediT-tagged roles, degree-of-contribution optional |
| Springer / Nature | Mandatory (most journals) | Free-text narrative statement |
| JMIR | Optional but recommended | Free-text narrative statement |
| ICMJE (cross-publisher baseline) | Recommended policy, not a form | Four-criteria authorship test |
The American Astronomical Society’s journals took the free-text route deliberately: when AASTeX v7.0 introduced Author Contribution sections, the society specified a free-form field “rather than a formulaic set of checkboxes,” precisely because a rigid taxonomy poorly serves papers with unusual author configurations — a principle that extends directly to minimal-author case reports.
Common questions on author contribution statements
How to write an author contribution in a case report?
State each named author’s role using plain, active verbs — conceived, collected, drafted, revised, approved — rather than the full CRediT list. Confirm every author meets all four ICMJE criteria; anyone who does not should move to the acknowledgements instead of the byline.
How do you write an author’s contribution statement?
Identify what each author actually did across conception, data work, drafting, and approval, then write one sentence per author naming those tasks. Use either free text or CRediT-tagged roles depending on the target journal’s house style, and have every author confirm the wording before submission.
What are examples of author contributions?
Common contribution categories include conceiving the study, acquiring or analysing data, drafting the manuscript, critically revising it, and supervising the work. The CRediT taxonomy formalises fourteen such categories, but a case report typically draws on only three or four of them.
What is a contribution statement example?
A minimal example: “The author conceived the case, gathered clinical data, drafted the manuscript, and approved the final version.” This single sentence satisfies ICMJE’s authorship test and works for any single-author case report regardless of specialty.
What this means for case report authors and editors
Journals and editorial offices reviewing minimal-author submissions should stop asking authors to populate all fourteen CRediT fields by default. A short, honest, ICMJE-aligned narrative — or a CRediT statement limited to the roles that genuinely applied — better serves both transparency and author time than a taxonomy stretched past its design case. Editors adopting free-text options, as AAS Journals did for astrophysics collaborations of any size, give case report authors a route that neither omits required disclosure nor manufactures roles that were never performed.
As more publishers formalise contribution statements as a submission requirement rather than an optional courtesy, case report authors gain most by keeping the statement proportional: name every applicable role, omit the rest, and confirm ICMJE accountability explicitly rather than by implication.
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