Authorship & Contribution

GRJNST is committed to transparent, accountable, and ethical authorship practices. To ensure fairness and scientific integrity, the journal strictly follows the CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy) framework for assigning and disclosing individual contributions of all authors. Proper attribution of each author’s contribution promotes responsibility, reproducibility, and recognition in research.

5.1 Definition of Authorship

  • Authorship implies substantial intellectual contribution to the work. Merely providing funding, supervision, or administrative support without direct contribution to research design, data analysis, or manuscript drafting does not qualify for authorship.
  • All authors should meet the following criteria:
    1. Made significant contributions to conceptualization, design, execution, or interpretation of the research.
    2. Drafted or critically revised the manuscript for important intellectual content.
    3. Approved the final version to be published.
    4. Agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work, ensuring that questions regarding accuracy or integrity are appropriately investigated and resolved.
  • GRJNST does not allow ghost authorship, honorary authorship, or guest authorship. All listed authors must meet the criteria above.

5.2 Contributor Roles (CRediT Taxonomy)

Each author must provide a clear and detailed description of their contributions before the references section. GRJNST requires the following roles to be explicitly reported (authors can indicate multiple roles as appropriate):

  1. Conceptualization – Defining the overarching research goals, formulating hypotheses, and developing the conceptual framework of the study.
  2. Methodology – Designing experiments, selecting appropriate methods, and establishing protocols for data collection and analysis.
  3. Data Curation – Collecting, organizing, and maintaining research data, including validation, cleaning, and ensuring reproducibility.
  4. Investigation – Performing experiments, observations, simulations, or surveys. This includes fieldwork, laboratory work, or computational modeling.
  5. Formal Analysis – Applying statistical, mathematical, computational, or analytical techniques to interpret research results and generate findings.
  6. Writing – Original Draft – Preparing the initial manuscript, including introduction, methodology, results, discussion, and conclusions.
  7. Writing – Review & Editing – Critically revising drafts, improving clarity, consistency, and scientific accuracy; responding to reviewers’ comments.
  8. Project Administration – Coordinating research activities, managing the team, and overseeing project timelines and deliverables.
  9. Funding Acquisition – Securing financial support, grants, or resources essential for conducting the research.
  • Authors should avoid generic statements such as “all authors contributed equally” unless it is fully accurate. Instead, specify each author’s specific role(s).

5.3 Authorship Approval Process

  • All authors must approve the final manuscript prior to submission.
  • Approval confirms that each author has:
    1. Reviewed and agreed with the study’s content, conclusions, and interpretations.
    2. Verified the accuracy of data and citations attributed to them.
    3. Acknowledged responsibility for ethical compliance, including human/animal studies, plagiarism, and conflicts of interest.
  • Submissions where authorship approval is not documented will not be processed.

5.4 Responsibilities of the Corresponding Author

The corresponding author acts as the primary point of contact for all communications with GRJNST and is responsible for:

  1. Ensuring all co-authors are included and fully aware of the manuscript submission.
  2. Collecting written consent from all authors confirming their agreement to submission and authorship.
  3. Managing revisions, responses to reviewers, and proof corrections on behalf of all authors.
  4. Confirming compliance with ethical requirements, copyright permissions, and data availability.
  5. Submitting the CRediT author contribution statement with the manuscript.

5.5 Conflict Resolution and Authorship Disputes

  • GRJNST adheres to COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) guidelines for authorship disputes.
  • Authors must resolve conflicts internally before submission.
  • GRJNST will not arbitrate disputes regarding authorship after submission; unresolved conflicts may result in manuscript rejection.

5.6 Example of Authorship Statement

Author Contributions Statement:
Dr. Aisha Khan: Conceptualization, Methodology, Investigation, Writing – Original Draft, Funding Acquisition.
Dr. Markus Lenz: Formal Analysis, Writing – Review & Editing, Project Administration.
Prof. Wei Zhang: Data Curation, Investigation, Writing – Review & Editing.

  • Such statements are required for every manuscript and will appear in the published article to ensure transparency and proper credit.

5.7 Special Considerations

  1. Equal Contribution:
    • If two or more authors contributed equally, specify clearly: “These authors contributed equally to this work.”
  2. Corresponding Author Only:
    • Only one corresponding author should be designated. Co-corresponding authors are discouraged unless justified.
  3. Affiliations and ORCID:
    • Authors must provide current institutional affiliations and valid ORCID iDs to ensure proper indexing and citation tracking.
  4. Group Authorship:
    • In large collaborative studies, group authorship is permitted, but all individual contributors and their specific roles must be listed in supplementary material.

5.8 Ethical Considerations

  • Listing authors who have not contributed significantly or excluding contributors who meet authorship criteria is considered academic misconduct.
  • Each author is jointly accountable for the integrity of the work, including data accuracy, interpretation, and adherence to journal policies.