It is essential to give credit to all individuals who contribute to a research project, but such recognition does not always imply authorship. When more than one person is listed as an author, it is crucial that each of them fulfills the role of author as defined by accepted ethical standards.
Following the widely recognized consensus of COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics), which is also the most commonly adopted among scientific journals, a person may be considered an author only if all four of the following conditions are met. The first two conditions provide options—meeting at least one within each of them is sufficient.
Criteria for being recognized as an author of a scholarly article:
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Having made substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work, or to the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data; and
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Having participated in drafting the manuscript or critically revising it for important intellectual content; and
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Having given final approval of the version to be submitted for publication; and
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Not being an artificial intelligence.
It is extremely important that all four criteria are fulfilled to avoid unethical practices such as gift authorship (attributing authorship to individuals who did not contribute meaningfully) or author omission (excluding contributors who should be acknowledged as authors).
Types of contributions that should NOT be considered authorship:
Individuals who support the research in other ways but do not meet all four criteria may be acknowledged in the “Acknowledgments” section, but should not be listed as authors.
To determine the type of contribution made by each individual, please refer to the CRediT Taxonomy at the following LINK.