Authorship Principles
Authorship carries significant responsibility, accountability, and potential ethical implications for the integrity of the scholarly record. FRJ follows internationally recognized standards, including the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), which define appropriate authorship based on clearly specified contributor roles (https://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/defining-the-role-of-authors-and-contributors.html).
Authorship Criteria
All individuals listed as authors must meet all of the following criteria, demonstrating meaningful intellectual contribution to the research:
Substantial Contribution: The individual must have made significant contributions to the conception or design of the study, or to the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data. This may also include the development of software or analytical tools used in the research.
Drafting and Critical Revision: The individual must have participated in drafting the manuscript or revising it critically for important intellectual content.
Final Approval: All authors must have reviewed and approved the final version of the manuscript prior to submission.
Accountability: All authors must agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work and ensure that any questions regarding accuracy or integrity are appropriately investigated and resolved.
Exclusions from Authorship: Individuals who contributed to the work but do not meet all four criteria should be acknowledged in the Acknowledgements section rather than listed as authors. Examples include language editing, general administrative support, or provision of materials. The practice of excluding individuals who made substantial intellectual contributions (“ghost authorship”) is strictly prohibited.
Authorship and AI: In line with COPE guidance, large language models (LLMs) and generative AI tools cannot be credited as authors. These tools cannot independently conceptualize research or assume responsibility for the integrity, originality, or validity of the work.
Role of the Corresponding Author
At least one author must be designated as the Corresponding Author, who serves as the primary contact between the author group and the journal throughout submission, peer review, publication, and post-publication communication.
Key responsibilities include:
• Approval and Order: Ensuring that all co-authors have approved the final manuscript and that the author order is accurate prior to submission.
• Submission Documentation: Providing all required forms, including the signed Authorship Form (signed by all authors) and the Conflict of Interest Form (signed by the corresponding author).
• Transparency: Ensuring that all required disclosures, declarations, data availability statements, and reused material permissions are properly included in the manuscript.
• Accountability: Acting on behalf of all co-authors in addressing questions related to the accuracy or integrity of the work. The corresponding author’s contact information must remain up to date.
Author Contributions (CRediT)
To promote transparency, FRJ encourages authors to specify individual contributions using the CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy) system (https://credit.niso.org), which standardizes reporting of author roles in scholarly publications.
CRediT Roles (examples):
• Conceptualization: Development of research ideas and goals
• Methodology: Design of research methods or models
• Data Curation: Management and organization of research data
• Formal Analysis: Application of statistical or computational techniques
• Investigation: Conducting experiments or data collection
• Writing – Original Draft: Preparation of the initial manuscript
• Writing – Review & Editing: Critical revision of the manuscript
• Supervision: Oversight and leadership of the research process
• Funding Acquisition: Securing financial support for the project
The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that all contribution statements are accurate and agreed upon by all co-authors. FRJ encourages inclusion of a detailed Author Contributions statement in the published article.
Changes to Authorship
The author list, including order of authors, should be finalized at the time of initial submission. FRJ generally does not permit changes to authorship after submission.
Requests for addition, removal, or rearrangement of authors must be approved by the journal editor and should ideally be made before manuscript acceptance. The corresponding author must submit the formal request (https://zenodo.org/records/17750189/files/Authorship_Change_Request_Form.docx?download=1), including a detailed justification and written consent from all authors, including those being added or removed. Only in exceptional circumstances will post-acceptance changes be considered.
Publication processing may be paused while authorship changes are reviewed. Unauthorized changes to authorship may result in rejection of the manuscript or retraction if already published. If an approved change occurs after publication, a formal corrigendum will be issued.
Authorship Disputes: FRJ does not arbitrate authorship disputes. If a dispute arises during peer review or after publication, authors will be required to resolve the issue independently. If unresolved, the journal may withdraw the manuscript or refer the matter to the relevant institutional authorities.