Transparency in authors’ contributions and responsibilities to promote integrity in scientific publication

Abstract

In keeping with the growing movement in scientific publishing toward transparency in data and methods, we propose changes to journal authorship policies and procedures to provide insight into which author is responsible for which contributions, better assurance that the list is complete, and clearly articulated standards to justify earning authorship credit. To accomplish these goals, we recommend that journals adopt common and transparent standards for authorship, outline responsibilities for corresponding authors, adopt the Contributor Roles Taxonomy (CRediT) methodology for attributing contributions, include this information in article metadata, and require authors to use the ORCID persistent digital identifier.