Authorship Criteria

Journal of Community Empowerment, has established authorship criteria to ensure that every individual listed as an author of an article has made a substantial scientific contribution and is accountable for the published work. The determination of authorship must uphold the principles of academic integrity, transparency, accountability and scientific publication ethics. 

1. Author Criteria

Any individual listed as an author of an article in the Journal of Community Empowerment must meet the following criteria:

  1. Make a substantive contribution to the conception or design of the research, the conduct of the research, data collection, data analysis and interpretation, or the development of the scientific content of the article.
  2. Participate in the drafting of the manuscript or carry out a critical review of the intellectual content of the article.
  3. Approve the final version of the manuscript to be submitted and published. Be prepared to take responsibility for the integrity of the scientific work and help ensure that any issues relating to the accuracy, validity and ethics of the research are dealt with appropriately.

2. Corresponding Author

The corresponding author is responsible for communicating with the editor throughout the submission, review, revision and publication process. The corresponding author is also responsible for ensuring that all authors have approved the submitted manuscript, the order of authorship, and the final version of the article to be published.

3. Order and Changes to Authorship

The order of authors’ names must be determined by mutual agreement amongst all authors, taking into account each author’s contribution. Any changes to the list of authors, the order of authorship, or the corresponding author after submission of the manuscript must be accompanied by a clear justification and written consent from all relevant authors, and must be approved by the editor.

4. Unethical Authorship

The Journal of Community Empowerment does not permit unethical authorship practices, including:

  1. Gift authorship, which is the inclusion of a person’s name as an author without sufficient scientific contribution.
  2. Guest authorship, which is the inclusion of a person’s name who does not meet the criteria for authorship, for example due to their position, reputation, or for reasons of honour.
  3. Ghost authorship, which is the failure to list an individual who has made a substantive contribution to the writing or scientific development of the article without a justifiable reason.

Individuals who have provided only technical, administrative, financial, or general support, but do not meet the criteria for authorship, may be listed in the Acknowledgements section in accordance with the relevance of their contribution.

5. Author Contribution Statements

The Journal of Community Empowerment encourages authors to provide transparent statements of contribution for each author. These statements may utilize the CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy) framework, which includes roles such as conceptualization, methodology, investigation, formal analysis, data management, drafting, reviewing and editing the manuscript, and supervision.

The statement of authors’ contributions must accurately reflect the contributions actually made by each individual. The inclusion of contributions does not replace the obligation of each author to meet the criteria for authorship and to approve the final version of the article.

6. Responsibilities and Ethical Compliance

All authors are responsible for ensuring that the submitted article is an original piece of scholarly work, free from plagiarism, and does not involve the fabrication or falsification of data; furthermore, it must not have been submitted simultaneously to another journal. All authors are required to disclose any potential conflicts of interest and to comply with relevant research ethics guidelines.

By submitting a manuscript to the Journal of Community Empowerment, authors declare that the authorship information provided is accurate, that all authors have approved the submission, and that each contribution has been honestly declared in accordance with the principles of academic integrity.

The Journal of Community Empowerment reserves the right to request clarification or supporting evidence should any indications of a breach of authorship criteria be found, and will handle such matters in accordance with the journal’s publication ethics policy.