ICMJE (International Committee of Medical Journal editors) recommends authorship to be based on the following 4 criteria:

  1. Significant contribution to the study concept and design, or the acquisition and analysis of data, or their interpretation
  2. Writing the first version of the article or substantial revision of its important intellectual content
  3. Final approval of the publication version

4. Consent to be responsible for all aspects of the work and ensure appropriate consideration and resolution of issues related to the accuracy and integrity of all parts of the work. In addition to responsibility for the part of the work that was done by the author, the author should be able to indicate co-author who is responsible for the other parts of the work. Furthermore, authors should be assured of the good faith contribution of their co-authors. All persons designated as authors must meet all four criteria for authorship, and all persons who meet the criteria for authorship must be listed in the list of authors.

Persons who do not meet all four criteria for authorship should be listed in the “Acknowledgements” section. These criteria for authorship are designed to ensure that the status of authorship is given to those who are trustworthy and can take responsibility for the published work. These criteria should not serve as a means of excluding colleagues who meet the remaining criteria, by depriving them of the ability to meet criteria 2 or 3. Therefore, all persons meeting the first criterion should be able to participate in the processing, writing of the first version of the manuscript and its final approval for publication. The persons conducting the work are responsible for identifying those who meet these criteria and, ideally, should do it during the planning of the work, and, as the work proceeds, make the necessary changes. Authors, but not the magazine in which the work is submitted, should jointly establish that all persons listed in the list of authors meet all four criteria. The magazine editors’ tasks do not include determining who meets or does not meet the requirements for authorship, or the resolution of conflicts related to authorship. If it is not possible to reach an agreement on who can be qualified as an author, the study site(s), but not the magazine editor, should be asked for resolution of the disputed issue. If authors are asked to remove or add an author after submitting or publishing a manuscript, magazine editors should receive appropriate explanations and a signed statement of consent from all the authors listed for the requested change, as well as from the author whose name should be removed or added. The corresponding author is primarily responsible for communicating with the magazine in the process of submitting, reviewing and publishing the manuscript, and he usually ensures that all administrative requirements of the magazine are met correctly, for example, specifying the authors' details, obtaining approval from the ethics committee and clinical registration documents, and collecting forms and conflict of interest statements. However, these responsibilities may also be assigned to one or more of the other co-authors. The corresponding author must be available throughout the process of submitting and reviewing the manuscript in order to promptly answer editorial questions, as well as after publication, to respond to criticism of the work and provide any data and additional information upon editorial request if there are any questions about the article after its publication. Although the corresponding author is primarily responsible for correspondence with the magazine, ICMJE recommends editors to send copies of all correspondence to all the authors listed. If the study is conducted by a large group, ideally, this group should decide who will be the author before starting work and confirm this decision before submitting the manuscript to the magazine. All members of the group included in the list of authors must meet all four criteria for authorship, including the approval of the final version of the manuscript, accept public responsibility for this work and have complete confidence in the accuracy and integrity of the work of the other members of the group of authors. They must also personally complete the conflict of interest forms. Some large groups of authors denote authorship by the name of the group, with or without indication of individuals. When submitting a manuscript on behalf of a group of authors, the corresponding author must indicate the name of the group, if any, and clearly identify the members of the group who can be entrusted with the reliance and responsibility for this work as authors. If the byline of article indicates who is directly responsible for the manuscript, and MEDLINE will list all authors indicted in byline. If the byline contains the group name, MEDLINE will list the individual members of the group who are authors, as well as participants, who are sometimes called as non-authors contributors, if available the note to the byline that clearly indicates that the list of individual participants is given in article elsewhere, and which of these participants is the author or another contributor.

Other participants of the work who do not meet all 4 criteria of authorship mentioned above should not be indicated as authors, but they should be thanked. Examples of activities that alone (without any other contribution to the work) cannot be considered a sufficient basis for authorship include fundraising, general management of a research group or general administrative support, writing assistance, technical editing, linguistic editing, and proofreading. Individuals whose contribution does not qualify as authorship can be thanked individually or collectively as a group under one heading (for example, “Clinical Researchers” or “Research Participants”), and their specific contribution should be indicated (for example, “participated as a scientific consultant ","critically evaluated the study plan", "collected data", "included patients in the study and participated in their treatment", "participated in the writing or technical editing of the manuscript"). Since the inclusion in the “Acknowledgements” section may imply confirmation of the data and the conclusion of the study by persons who will be thanked, editors are encouraged to ask the corresponding author to obtain written permission to be mentioned in “Acknowledgements” from all persons who will be thanked.


Бионика Медиа