Authorship and Contributorship

The International Journal of Nutrology (IJN) requires transparent, accurate, and accountable attribution of authorship and contributorship. This policy applies to all content submitted to or published by the journal.

IJN follows the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) recommendations on authors and contributors and uses the CRediT Contributor Role Taxonomy to describe individual contributions. Reference to these standards does not imply membership in the organizations that developed them.

Who qualifies as an author

Every person listed as an author must meet all four ICMJE authorship criteria:

Make a substantial contribution to the conception or design of the work; or to the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; and
Draft the work or review it critically for important intellectual content; and
Approve the final version to be published; and
Agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work and ensure that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

All individuals who meet all four criteria must be listed as authors. Individuals who do not meet all four criteria must not be listed as authors but may be identified as contributors in the Acknowledgments, with their specific contribution described.

Unacceptable authorship practices

IJN does not permit guest, gift, honorary, purchased, coerced, or ghost authorship. Providing funding, patients, samples, materials, data collection, general supervision, administrative support, language editing, proofreading, or technical assistance alone does not qualify a person for authorship.

Editors may request information or documentation to verify contributions. Suspected misrepresentation of authorship may result in suspension of the editorial process, rejection, notification of the relevant institution, or post-publication action, as appropriate.

Author contribution statement and CRediT

At submission, the corresponding author must provide an author contribution statement describing each author's contribution using the 14 CRediT roles:

Conceptualization;
Data curation;
Formal analysis;
Funding acquisition;
Investigation;
Methodology;
Project administration;
Resources;
Software;
Supervision;
Validation;
Visualization;
Writing – original draft; and
Writing – review and editing.

More than one role may be assigned to an author, and the same role may be assigned to more than one author. A CRediT role describes a contribution but does not, by itself, establish eligibility for authorship. Every author must still meet all four ICMJE criteria. The final contribution statement will be published with the article.

Responsibilities of all authors

Before submission, all authors must:

review and approve the manuscript being submitted;
agree with the author list, author order, and contribution statement;
confirm that they meet all four authorship criteria;
provide accurate names, affiliations, contact information, and disclosures;
approve the journal's editorial, copyright, licensing, and publication policies; and
accept responsibility for the integrity of their own contributions and cooperate with questions concerning the work.

Authors should use their institutional email addresses when available. ORCID identifiers are strongly encouraged to improve identification and attribution.

Corresponding author

The corresponding author is the primary contact with IJN before, during, and after publication. The corresponding author must:

confirm at submission that every listed author approved the manuscript, author list, order, and contribution statement;
ensure that all required ethics approvals, registrations, funding information, conflicts of interest, data statements, and permissions are complete and accurate;
keep all authors informed of editorial decisions and requested revisions;
obtain approval from all authors for the final version and proofs;
respond promptly to editorial and post-publication questions; and
cooperate in providing data or documentation when reasonably requested to clarify the integrity of the work.

IJN may contact any or all authors directly to verify authorship, contributions, consent to submission, disclosures, or a requested change. Failure to obtain adequate confirmation may suspend the review or publication process.

Order of authors

The authors must decide the order of authorship collectively before submission. IJN does not determine the order of authors and does not arbitrate disputes about author position. The corresponding author must confirm that every author agreed to the submitted order.

Group and consortium authorship

For group or consortium submissions, the corresponding author must identify:

the group or consortium name;
the individuals who qualify as authors and accept direct responsibility for the work; and
other group members who should be listed as non-author collaborators or acknowledged contributors.

Every individual identified as an author must meet all four ICMJE criteria and complete the required disclosures. The title page and submission metadata must clearly distinguish authors from collaborators.

Non-author contributors and acknowledgments

People who contributed to the work but do not meet all authorship criteria may be named in the Acknowledgments. Their contribution must be described, such as data collection, technical support, statistical advice, medical writing, language editing, or administrative support.

Because acknowledgment may imply endorsement of the work, the corresponding author must obtain written permission from every individually named person before submission. Financial and material support must also be disclosed.

Professional writers and editing assistance

Professional medical writing, language editing, translation, technical editing, or other paid assistance must be disclosed in the Acknowledgments, including the individual's or organization's name, the nature of the assistance, and the source of funding. Such assistance does not qualify for authorship unless the person independently meets all four ICMJE criteria.

Use of artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence tools, large language models, chatbots, image generators, and similar technologies cannot be listed as authors or cited as authors because they cannot take responsibility for the work.

Authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy, integrity, originality, citations, permissions, and absence of plagiarism in all submitted material. Use of AI-assisted technology must be disclosed in the cover letter and in the manuscript:

writing, translation, or language assistance must be disclosed in the Acknowledgments; and
use in data collection, analysis, coding, image creation, figure preparation, or research methods must be described transparently in the Methods or another appropriate section.

Basic tools used only for spelling, grammar, or reference formatting do not need to be disclosed unless their use materially changed the content. Authors must not upload confidential, personal, identifiable, copyrighted, or unpublished material to an AI service without appropriate authorization.

Changes in authorship before publication

Any request to add, remove, reorder, or replace an author after submission must be sent by the corresponding author to the IJN editorial office before publication. The request must include:

the manuscript title and identification number;
a detailed reason for the requested change;
an updated author contribution statement; and
written agreement from every listed author and from every person being added or removed.

IJN may pause peer review or production while the request is assessed. Approval is not automatic. Changes requested after acceptance will be permitted only in exceptional, adequately documented circumstances. The journal may contact authors or institutions to verify the request.

Authorship changes after publication

Requests made after publication are evaluated under the same documentation requirements and, when approved, will normally require publication of a correction linked to the article. The online article and metadata will be updated when appropriate, while preserving the publication record.

If an authorship change is connected to suspected misconduct or materially affects confidence in the article, IJN may publish an expression of concern, correction, or retraction in accordance with its Corrections, Retractions and Withdrawals Policy.

Authorship disputes

IJN will not determine who should qualify as an author or arbitrate disputes among research collaborators. If the authors cannot reach agreement, the editorial process may be suspended and the matter referred to the relevant institution or institutions for investigation. The journal will consider the institutional findings and take the editorial action necessary to protect the scholarly record.

Deceased or incapacitated authors

If an author dies or becomes incapacitated before publication, the remaining authors must inform the journal. If that person made a qualifying contribution and approved the manuscript before death or incapacity, the name may remain in the author list with an appropriate note. The corresponding author and remaining authors must confirm the contribution and accept responsibility for the integrity of the work. If final approval was not possible, the editor will determine whether acknowledgment is more appropriate.

Submissions involving editors or editorial board members

A manuscript authored by an editor, editorial board member, journal employee, owner, or close collaborator must be handled by an independent editor who has no relevant conflict of interest. The author-editor must have no access to reviewer identities, confidential reviews, or the editorial decision process. The article must undergo the same peer-review and authorship requirements as other submissions, and the relevant relationship must be disclosed in the published article.

Required submission statements

The manuscript or title page, as applicable, must include:

the complete author list and affiliations;
the corresponding author's contact details;
an author contribution statement using CRediT;
an acknowledgment of non-author contributions and written-permission confirmation;
funding and support information;
conflict-of-interest disclosures; and
disclosure of AI-assisted technology when applicable.

Authors should also follow the journal's Instructions to Authors, General Editorial Policies, and Policies on Conflicts of Interest, Human and Animal Rights, and Informed Consent.

Questions and documented authorship-change requests should be sent to the IJN editorial office at [email protected].

Last updated: August 2026.