AUTHORSHIP POLICY

FUJRS expects all published articles to contain clear and accurate attribution of authorship. It is the responsibility of the corresponding author to ensure that all authors that contributed to the work are fairly acknowledged and that the published author list accurately reflects individual contributions. FUJRS follows the guidelines laid down by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) and the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) while receiving, processing, and publication of research manuscripts. The journal will consider a right to authorship when all four authorship criteria of ICMJE are met. These criteria are as follows:

  • Substantial participation in the research work with a contribution to all stages of research namely, the conception of the research work; the research design itself; or the data collection; data analysis following collection; or data interpretation following analysis
  • Active contribution to the research manuscript during drafting or its critical revision with reference to the importance of the intellectual content
  • Active contribution/participation in the final approval final copy of the manuscript that is ready for publication
  • Willingness to share responsibility for the whole research work to allow for investigation and resolution of integrity and accuracy of research work.

Where authors employ the services of third-party agencies prior to submission, for instance in language editing or manuscript formatting/preparation, they must ensure that all services comply with the following guidelines.

Third-Party Submissions:

All manuscripts must be submitted by the corresponding author/ authors themselves. FUJRS does not accept manuscripts submitted by a third party on behalf of authors.

Authors Declaration Form:

The authors are required to submit a duly signed author declaration form (Available here). Authors are to ensure that the data provided in the author declaration form and the journal’s OJS metadata is the same. Otherwise, the journal reserves the right to replace metadata with the information provided by the authors in the author declaration form.

Corresponding author:

The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that all listed authors have approved the manuscript before submission, including the names and order of authors, and that all authors receive the submission and all substantive correspondence with editors, as well as the full reviews, verifying that all data, figures, materials (including reagents), and code, even those developed or provided by other authors, comply with the transparency and reproducibility standards of both the field and journal.

This responsibility includes but is not limited to: (i) ensuring that original data/original figures/materials/code upon which the submission is based are preserved following best practices in the field so that they are retrievable for reanalysis; (ii) confirming that data/figures/materials/code presentation accurately reflects the original; and (iii) foreseeing and minimizing obstacles to the sharing of data/materials/code described in the work. The corresponding author should be responsible for managing these requirements across the author group and ensuring that the entire author group is fully aware of and in compliance with best practices in the discipline of publication.

To discourage ghost authorship, corresponding authors must reveal as appropriate whether the manuscript benefited from the use of editorial services that, if unacknowledged, might constitute an undisclosed conflict of interest. Examples include use of an editor from an organization that may have a vested interest in slanting the results or reliance on a technical writer at a level that would warrant authorship credit. These situations might variously be addressed by including a statement in the acknowledgments, by describing the effort in the methods section, or by adding an author.

The involvement of scientific (medical) writers or anyone else who assisted with the preparation of the manuscript content should be acknowledged, along with their source of funding. The role of medical writers should be acknowledged explicitly in the ‘Acknowledgements’ or ‘Authors’ contributions’ section as appropriate.

Corresponding authors should indicate whether any authors on earlier versions have been removed or new authors added and why. It is incumbent on the corresponding author to ensure that all authors (or group/laboratory leaders in large collaborations) have certified the author list and contribution description: that all authors who deserve to be credited on the manuscript are indeed identified, that no authors are listed who do not deserve authorship credit, and that author contributions, where they are provided, are expressed accurately. All contributions of authors and contributors will be published at end of article.

Any potential authorship disputes brought to the editors’ attention will be handled in line with COPE guidelines.

Changes in authorship:

FUJRS discourages change of authorship during review process or after publication. Authors are instructed to ensure that such issues don’t rise. Even so if change in authorship is required, the requests for changes to authorship must be directed to the journal editor. Requests will be dealt with fairly and in accordance with the relevant COPE guidelines (detailed below). Changes in authorship will only be permitted where valid reasons are provided and all authors are in agreement with the change. Post-publication changes to authorship will typically be made via a published correction.

‘Ghost,’ ‘Guest,’ or ‘Gift’ authorship:

FUJRS considers all forms of ghost, guest, and gift authorship to be unethical and works closely with editors and publishing partners to take a firm stance against such practices. Any allegation of ghost, guest, or gift authorship will be investigated in accordance with the COPE guidelines. Where such practices are identified the authors in question will be removed from an article through a post-publication correction or erratum. In addition, the journal may choose to notify the institutional or local ethics committee for the authors in question.