Authorship & Contributorship
Policies / Authorship
Authorship & Contributorship
Who qualifies as an author, how contributions are recorded, and how authorship questions are handled.
Authorship confers both credit and accountability, and BJHMR expects it to be assigned with honesty and transparency, following the recommendations of the ICMJE and the guidance of COPE.
Criteria for authorship (ICMJE)
An individual qualifies as an author only where each of the following four conditions is met:
| ▸ | a substantial contribution to the conception or design of the work, or to the acquisition, analysis or interpretation of data; |
| ▸ | drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; |
| ▸ | final approval of the version to be published; and |
| ▸ | agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to its accuracy or integrity are appropriately investigated and resolved. |
Those who contribute without meeting all four criteria — for example acquisition of funding, general supervision, or purely technical or clinical support — should be recognised in the Acknowledgements, with their permission.
Contributor roles (CRediT) and ORCID
Authors must describe each person’s role using the CRediT taxonomy, published with the article. The corresponding author must provide an ORCID iD, and co-authors are strongly encouraged to do so, ensuring reliable attribution.
Corresponding author, group authorship and changes
The corresponding author manages communication, confirms that every author meets the criteria and has approved the submission, and provides required documentation. For group or collaborative authorship, identify the individuals who take responsibility and how the group is to be cited. Any change to the author list after submission requires the written agreement of all authors, including any person added or removed, with a stated reason; authorship is not normally altered after acceptance, and such requests follow COPE guidance.
Unacceptable practices and disputes
The journal prohibits ghost, gift or honorary, and guest authorship, and treats such practices as misconduct. Generative-AI tools cannot be authors. The journal does not arbitrate the substance of authorship disputes but asks the parties and, where necessary, their institutions to resolve them under the relevant COPE flowchart, and may pause consideration until a dispute is settled.
