Authorship

The authorship of a work needs to meet the following four criteria referring to International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE):

• Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work.
• Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content.
• Final approval of the version to be published.
• Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

In addition to being accountable for the parts of the work he or she has done, an author should be able to identify which co-authors are responsible for other specific parts of the work. In addition, authors should have confidence in the integrity of the contributions of their co-authors. A corresponding author takes charge of contacting the editorial office and responding all the inquiries initiated by the editorial office. Note that a corresponding author has the responsibility to submit a new manuscript and notify all the authors of queries and decisions. The number of corresponding authors and co-first authors is both up to two.

Changes of authorship

Any addition, deletion, or rearrangement of author names in the author list can only be made before the manuscript’s acceptance for publication. The corresponding author should provide the editorial office with the reason for the change in the list of authors and the written confirmation certificate of all authors (including existing authors and authors to be added or deleted) agreeing to the change. Authors are responsible for carefully checking the list and order of authors before submitting a manuscript.

Requests for changes of authorship require editorial approval before any changes can be made.