Authorship Policy

AUTHORSHIP POLICY

CREATE: Contemporary Research in Education and Teaching is committed to maintaining the highest standards of publication ethics, academic integrity, transparency, and accountability throughout the scholarly publishing process. This Authorship Policy establishes the principles and requirements governing authorship, the recognition of individual contributions, and the prevention of unethical authorship practices. The policy is guided by the authorship principles of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), the ethical guidance of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), and the Contributor Roles Taxonomy (CRediT).

All authors submitting manuscripts to CREATE are required to understand and comply with this policy. The first author and corresponding author are responsible for ensuring that all individuals listed as authors meet the established authorship criteria, have made legitimate scholarly contributions, and have approved the final version of the manuscript prior to publication.

1. Authorship Criteria

An individual may be listed as an author of a manuscript submitted to CREATE only if all four of the following criteria are fulfilled:

  1. Substantial Contribution to the Research: The individual must have made a significant intellectual contribution to the conception or design of the study, the acquisition of research data, or the analysis and interpretation of the findings.
  2. Participation in Manuscript Preparation: The individual must have actively participated in drafting the manuscript or critically revising it for important intellectual content.
  3. Final Approval: The individual must have reviewed and explicitly approved the final version of the manuscript intended for publication.
  4. Accountability and Research Integrity: The individual must agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work, including ensuring that any questions concerning the accuracy or integrity of any part of the research are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Exclusions from Authorship: Contributions limited to obtaining research funding, providing laboratory facilities or infrastructure, offering general supervision of a research group, providing administrative assistance, or undertaking language editing do not independently qualify an individual for authorship. Such contributions should instead be appropriately acknowledged in the Acknowledgments section of the manuscript.

2. Publication and Affiliation Limits within a Single Issue

To promote academic diversity, equitable publication opportunities, and editorial independence, CREATE applies the following restrictions concerning the number of publications by individual authors and institutional affiliations within a single journal issue:

  1. Publication Limit for First Authors and Corresponding Authors: An individual serving as the first author or corresponding author may publish only one article in a single issue of CREATE. This provision is intended to provide broader publication opportunities for other researchers and to encourage a balanced distribution of scholarly contributions.
  2. Publication Limit Based on Institutional Affiliation: A maximum of two articles originating from authors affiliated with the same institution, university, or organization may be published in a single issue. This restriction is intended to encourage institutional diversity and prevent any single institution from dominating an issue.
  3. Handling Multiple Submissions: If more than one manuscript involving the same first author or corresponding author is submitted for consideration in the same issue, the editorial office will request that the author select one of the following arrangements:
    1. Rescheduling for a Subsequent Issue: The author may select one manuscript for consideration in the nearest issue, while the other manuscript may be considered for a subsequent issue, subject to editorial evaluation and publication capacity.
    2. Manuscript Withdrawal: The author may formally request the withdrawal of one of the submitted manuscripts and authorize the editorial office to discontinue its editorial consideration or reject the manuscript.

These restrictions form part of the journal's internal issue-management and publication-allocation policy. The editorial office reserves the right to verify author identities and institutional affiliations and to communicate appropriate editorial arrangements to the authors concerned.

3. Acknowledgments

Individuals, groups, or institutions that have contributed to the research but do not satisfy all authorship criteria outlined in Section 1 should be appropriately recognized in the Acknowledgments section. This practice ensures that contributions are transparently acknowledged without assigning authorship to individuals whose involvement does not meet the required academic and ethical standards.

Contributions that may be acknowledged include, but are not limited to:

  • Technical research assistance, including research assistants, laboratory technicians, and field data collectors.
  • Financial support, provision of facilities, research infrastructure, or administrative assistance.
  • Translation, language editing, proofreading, and manuscript formatting assistance.
  • General academic advice, preliminary discussions, or intellectual suggestions that do not meet all authorship requirements.

The first author or corresponding author must ensure that written permission has been obtained from every individual whose name appears in the Acknowledgments section. All acknowledgments must accurately describe the nature of the contribution and must not imply authorship responsibilities where such responsibilities do not exist.

4. Author Contributions and CRediT Taxonomy

To strengthen transparency and accountability in scholarly publishing, CREATE adopts the Contributor Roles Taxonomy (CRediT) framework. This framework provides a standardized approach to identifying and describing the specific contributions made by each author throughout the research process, including research planning, implementation, analysis, and manuscript preparation. All authors are required to declare their respective contributions accurately.

The following CRediT roles and descriptions are used by CREATE:

CRediT Role Description of Contribution
Conceptualization Development of the central research ideas, formulation of research objectives, questions, or hypotheses.
Data Curation Management, cleaning, organization, and maintenance of research data.
Formal Analysis Application of statistical, computational, mathematical, or qualitative analytical techniques to interpret research data.
Funding Acquisition Activities undertaken to obtain financial support for the research project.
Investigation Conducting research activities, including data collection, experiments, observations, and fieldwork.
Methodology Development or design of research methods, procedures, and research instruments.
Project Administration Management, coordination, and administration of research planning and implementation.
Resources Provision of research materials, instruments, samples, learning media, facilities, or other resources.
Software Development, programming, or implementation of software, algorithms, and applications supporting the research.
Supervision Academic leadership, supervision, and mentoring during the conduct of the research.
Validation Verification, testing, or replication of research findings, analytical results, and research methods.
Visualization Preparation and presentation of research data through graphs, charts, tables, diagrams, or illustrations.
Writing – Original Draft Preparation and development of the initial draft of the scholarly manuscript.
Writing – Review & Editing Critical review, revision, editing, and refinement of the intellectual content of the manuscript.

Every listed author must undertake at least one primary contribution in one of the following roles: Conceptualization, Investigation, Methodology, or Writing. Contribution statements must accurately reflect the actual work performed by each author and must not be used to justify honorary or otherwise inappropriate authorship.

5. Roles and Responsibilities of the First Author and Corresponding Author

In the publication process, CREATE recognizes different responsibilities according to the roles undertaken by individual authors in the research and editorial communication. The two principal author roles are defined as follows:

  1. Corresponding Author: The author responsible for serving as the primary contact between all co-authors and the CREATE Editorial Board throughout the submission, initial editorial assessment, peer-review, revision, and publication processes. The corresponding author is responsible for communicating editorial decisions and requests to all co-authors, ensuring the completeness of required documents, and confirming that all authors have approved the manuscript and relevant publication ethics declarations.
  2. First Author: The author who takes the leading role in conducting the research and preparing the initial manuscript. The first author generally makes substantial contributions to the formulation of research ideas, implementation of the study, data analysis, interpretation of findings, and preparation of the scholarly article.

The designation of the first author and corresponding author must be based on the agreement of all authors, taking into consideration their actual contributions, responsibilities, and involvement in the research. Such designations must not be determined solely by academic title, seniority, institutional position, or personal relationships.

6. Authorship Misconduct

CREATE strictly prohibits all forms of authorship manipulation, misrepresentation, and unethical attribution of scholarly contributions. Inappropriate authorship practices undermine academic integrity, distort the recognition of scholarly work, and violate the principles of responsible research and publication. The following practices are considered forms of authorship misconduct:

  1. Ghost Authorship: Failure to acknowledge or include an individual who has made substantial intellectual contributions and satisfies all authorship criteria, despite their legitimate contribution to the research and manuscript preparation.
  2. Gift or Honorary Authorship: Listing an individual as an author without a qualifying scholarly contribution, solely because of personal relationships, respect, seniority, academic position, or honorary considerations.
  3. Guest Authorship: Including the name of a prominent academic, senior researcher, institutional official, or other well-known individual who has not made a substantial contribution to the research, with the intention of enhancing the manuscript's reputation, credibility, or likelihood of acceptance.

Any change in the authorship list after manuscript submission, including the addition, removal, or rearrangement of authors, must be supported by a clear written explanation and formal approval from all authors. The editorial office reserves the right to request supporting documentation or clarification when inconsistencies in authorship declarations are identified. Suspected authorship misconduct will be investigated in accordance with applicable publication ethics principles. Depending on the findings, editorial actions may include suspension of the editorial process, requests for clarification, or rejection of the manuscript.

7. Use of Artificial Intelligence and Large Language Models (AI & LLM Tools)

CREATE recognizes that artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, including Large Language Models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT, Claude, and similar tools, may be used to assist certain aspects of research and scholarly writing. However, AI systems and LLM tools cannot be listed as authors or co-authors because they are unable to assume academic responsibility, accountability, final approval, and ethical responsibility for the published work.

Authors who use AI tools during the research or manuscript preparation process must disclose such use transparently. The disclosure should identify the tool or technology used, explain its purpose, and specify the relevant parts or stages of the work in which AI assistance was employed. Depending on the nature and purpose of its use, the disclosure should be included in the Methods or Acknowledgments section of the manuscript.

Authors retain full responsibility for the accuracy of information, originality of ideas, validity of data, reliability of references, and integrity of the entire manuscript, including any content generated or assisted by AI tools. All AI-generated or AI-assisted outputs must be carefully reviewed and verified before being incorporated into the manuscript. The use of AI to generate fabricated information or references, manipulate research data, or produce material that infringes copyright or violates academic ethics is strictly unacceptable.

8. Author Contribution Statement

All manuscripts submitted to CREATE must include an Author Contribution Statement. This statement must be placed at the end of the manuscript, immediately before the References section, and must clearly describe the specific contribution of each author in accordance with the CRediT Taxonomy framework.

Authors are encouraged to use the following format, adapting the author initials and contribution roles to reflect the actual work performed by each individual:

Recommended Author Contribution Statement:

Author Contributions: [Author 1 Initials]: Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing – original draft. [Author 2 Initials]: Formal analysis, Investigation, Data curation, Writing – review & editing. [Author 3 Initials]: Resources, Supervision, Funding acquisition, Writing – review & editing. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

The contribution statement must be accurate, transparent, and consistent with the actual involvement of each author. The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that the statement has been reviewed and approved by all co-authors before the manuscript is submitted to the editorial office.

Policy Compliance and Editorial Authority

By submitting a manuscript to CREATE: Contemporary Research in Education and Teaching, all authors acknowledge that they have read, understood, and agreed to comply with this Authorship Policy. The Editorial Board reserves the right to request clarification, supporting documentation, or additional declarations whenever necessary to verify authorship eligibility, the accuracy of contribution statements, and compliance with publication ethics. All suspected violations will be handled objectively, proportionately, and in accordance with established principles of scholarly publication ethics.