coauthors

A coauthor is a person who has made a substantial contribution to a scholarly work and who takes public responsibility for its content. Coauthors typically share responsibility for the integrity of the work, from conception to final publication, and must approve the manuscript before submission.

Most journals and professional organizations rely on established criteria to determine authorship. Common standards require substantial contributions to the study, drafting or revising the manuscript, final approval of the version to be published, and accountability for all aspects of the work.

Authorship order often reflects contribution, with the first author having performed the bulk of the work and the last author acting as supervisor or senior author. Some fields allow equal contributions, which are noted with statements in the manuscript.

Non-author contributors may be acknowledged for support such as data collection, software development, or administrative help. Such individuals do not meet authorship criteria but still receive formal recognition.

Ethical publication practices discourage gift authorship and ghost authorship. Disputes over credit are typically addressed through institutional processes or journal guidelines, and corrections or retractions may follow if authorship fails to reflect contributions.

Authors are often responsible for data stewardship, reproducibility, and responding to inquiries. ORCID identifiers and contributor statements help document who did what and ensure proper attribution.

Different disciplines vary in norms. Large experimental collaborations in physics may list many authors or use alphabetical order, while humanities works may emphasize the first author and the senior author in a different sequence.

Practical guidance includes discussing authorship at project inception, maintaining records of contributions, and obtaining written agreement from all authors before submission.