✅ Who is the Author?

Authorship is not a clearly defined concept. To be an “author” one must have responsibility for a particular aspect of the research or preparation of the work, Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study.

✅ Authorship and Contributorship

Authorship policies are elaborated, concerning conditions for eligibility.

Authors should have the following criteria as stated by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE):

• 1️⃣ Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND

• 2️⃣ Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND

• 3️⃣ Final approval of the version to be published; AND

• 4️⃣ Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Anyone assigned as an author should possess all of what has been mentioned above, the four criteria, at the same time.

Any contributor who does not happen to possess the criteria for authorship should be mentioned in the Acknowledgments section with their permission. 

✅ Who is the Corresponding Author?

The corresponding author should be one or two person(s) who are willing and able to handle all correspondence with the journal editor, including responding to reviewers' comments and proofreading the final version. 

Authors are expected to carefully consider the list and order of authors before submitting their manuscript and provide the definitive list of authors at the time of the original submission. Any addition, deletion, or rearrangement of author names in the authorship list should be made only before the manuscript has been accepted and only if approved by the Journal Editor. To request such a change, the Editor must receive the following from the corresponding author: (a) the reason for the change in the author list and (b) written confirmation (e-mail, letter) from all authors that they agree with the addition, removal, or rearrangement. In the case of adding or removing authors, this includes confirmation from the author being added or removed.

So you should fill out the Agreement/Statement form (PDF file) and then upload it in the submission process. (Author Statements Form)

✅ How to write an "Authors' Contribution"?

Please clarify and write who was responsible for the following:

• Conceptualization:
• Data curation:
• Formal analysis:
• Funding acquisition:
• Investigation:
• Methodology:
• Project administration:
• Resources:
• Software:
• Supervision:
• Validation:
• Visualization:
• Writing–original draft:
• Writing–review editing:

authors must write the author's full names for the contributor role if applicable.  For the “role definition” of items as mentioned above see the following link:
https://credit.niso.org/

✅ Acknowledgment

All person(s), grants, and other support sources for the project or study, including funds from contributors, institutions, and commercial sources should be appreciated.
All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be covered in the acknowledgment section. It should include persons who provided technical help, writing assistance and a departmental head who only provided general support. The financial and material support should also be acknowledged.