CRediT statement
Most journals using Editorial Manager ask for one line per author; some ScholarOne journals list by role. Check the journal’s instructions.
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Authorship Sheet
Decide who goes on the paper, and in what order, before anyone writes a word. Fill in the sheet, send the link to your co-authors, and let them correct it.
The sheet lives in the link. What you type is kept after the # in this page’s address. Browsers do not send that part to any server, so AskDimitri never sees your sheet. Anyone who has the link can read it, so send it only to your co-authors.
The paper
Authors, in order
For each person, choose their CRediT roles and tick the ICMJE criteria they meet. At kickoff, tick what each person commits to. Before submission, tick only what they have done.
The four ICMJE criteria
An author meets all four. Paraphrased here; the ICMJE recommendations have the full text.
- Substantial contribution. Contributed substantially to the idea or design, or to collecting, analysing or interpreting the data.
- Drafting or critical revision. Writes the draft or revises it critically for important content.
- Final approval. Approves the final version before it is submitted.
- Accountability. Agrees to answer for every part of the work, including questions about its accuracy or integrity.
People who help but do not meet all four go in the Acknowledgments, with their permission.
The 14 CRediT roles
The Contributor Roles Taxonomy, ANSI/NISO Z39.104-2022. Each role can be taken at one of three degrees: lead (the main person), equal (shared equally with others) or supporting (helped). Each name links to the standard’s definition.
- Conceptualization
- Shaped the idea, the question and the aims.
- Data curation
- Cleaned, annotated and kept the data usable.
- Formal analysis
- Ran the statistical or other analysis of the data.
- Funding acquisition
- Won the funding that paid for the work.
- Investigation
- Ran the experiments or collected the data.
- Methodology
- Designed the methods or models.
- Project administration
- Planned, coordinated and kept the work on schedule.
- Resources
- Provided patients, samples, materials, instruments or computing.
- Software
- Wrote, tested or maintained code the work relied on.
- Supervision
- Oversaw the work and mentored the people doing it.
- Validation
- Checked that the results hold up and can be reproduced.
- Visualization
- Made the figures and other visual presentation of the data.
- Writing – original draft
- Wrote the first draft.
- Writing – review & editing
- Revised the draft critically and edited it.
Planned papers from this project (optional)
Planning more than one paper from the same project? One dataset can give a primary paper, a subgroup paper, a methods paper, a review and a perspective, as long as each answers its own question. The sheet warns you when two of them overlap, because journals treat that as possible redundant publication.
What the sheet says
ICMJE check
Suggested Acknowledgments line
Ask each person before you name them in the Acknowledgments.
The criteria are paraphrased. The ICMJE recommendations have the full text.
Order notes
Equal-contribution footnote
How author order is usually read
Role checks
Overlap between planned papers
Read ICMJE on overlapping publications before you split one project into several papers.
Kickoff agreement (optional)
A one-page agreement for the first meeting, filled in from a fixed template. It is a discussion template, not legal advice.
For a disagreement you cannot settle, the ICMJE recommendations and COPE are the usual references. This sheet does not rule on disputes.
Send and save
Copy the link and send it to your co-authors. When they change something, their address bar holds a new link; ask them to send it back.
The sheet file (JSON) is for large author lists, 20 or more, whose links get too long for email. Anyone can open it here with “Open a sheet file”.
For AskDimitri members
Need to raise the order with your senior author? Copy a prompt that carries this sheet’s summary, with initials instead of names, and paste it into Career strategy in your dashboard. Nothing is sent until you press Send there.