Authorship and Contributorship Policy

This policy expands the authorship principles in the journal’s Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement. Authorship identifies responsibility for a scholarly work as well as credit. The English text is the reference version; Uzbek and Russian versions present the same policy.

VERIFY notes identify operational details requiring confirmation by the editorial office. They must not be read as claims that an unverified form, system feature or procedure is already in use.

Authorship Criteria
Substantial Contribution
Corresponding Author Responsibility
Author Order
Contributorship
Acknowledgements
Ghost Authorship
Guest and Gift Authorship
Adding or Removing an Author
Authorship Changes after Submission
Consent of All Authors
Conflict Disclosure
ORCID Recommendation

1. Authorship Criteria

An author must satisfy all four conditions: a meaningful intellectual contribution; drafting or substantive critical revision; approval of the final manuscript; and responsibility for its integrity. Each named author should be able to explain their own contribution and help address questions about the work. These conditions apply together, not as alternatives.

No person should be excluded because of junior status, institutional affiliation or lack of funding. Contributors should have a fair opportunity to participate in revision and final approval. Artificial intelligence tools cannot accept responsibility and must not be named as authors; their use is addressed in the journal’s Generative AI policy.

2. Substantial Contribution

A substantial contribution involves meaningful intellectual work that shapes the research question, design, methods, data, analysis or interpretation. In engineering and digital-technology research this may include developing a research method, designing an experiment, producing research software or critically validating results. The contribution should be described specifically rather than inferred from a job title.

Funding alone, access to equipment, routine data entry, general supervision, translation or proofreading alone does not establish authorship. Several people may qualify through different kinds of contribution; contribution is not measured only by hours worked, money provided or the number of sentences written.

3. Corresponding Author Responsibility

The corresponding author coordinates communication with the editorial office and the author group. They should keep names, affiliations, contact details and contributor information accurate; circulate substantive editorial requests and revised manuscripts; and ensure that co-authors know what is being submitted in their names.

This coordination does not transfer the other authors’ responsibility or give the corresponding author authority to consent on their behalf. The corresponding author should remain reachable for questions about the published work and coordinate responses, corrections and supporting explanations when needed.

4. Author Order

The author group should agree on the order of names before submission and keep an explanation of the agreed basis. The journal does not infer a fixed hierarchy of contributions from first, last or corresponding-author positions. An equal-contribution statement should identify the relevant authors and accurately describe the agreement.

Changing the order is an authorship change and requires the same openness and agreement as changing membership of the author list. Prestige, payment or pressure from a senior colleague is not a legitimate reason to alter credit.

5. Contributorship

Authors should provide a concise contribution statement that connects each name with the work performed. The CRediT taxonomy may help describe roles such as methodology, software, investigation, analysis and writing. One person may hold several roles, and a role may be shared. Listing a role is not, by itself, proof that all authorship criteria are met.

VERIFY A1 — Confirm where contribution statements are collected, whether they are compulsory for particular article types, and whether CRediT roles are published or exported in metadata. No mandatory CRediT workflow or OJS integration is asserted here.

6. Acknowledgements

People who helped but do not meet the authorship criteria should receive appropriate acknowledgement instead of an author position. Describe the assistance, for example language editing, technical support or access to facilities. Obtain permission before naming an individual, because acknowledgement may be understood as endorsement.

Identify relevant professional writing or editing assistance and who funded it. Payment for legitimate assistance neither automatically creates authorship nor permits concealment of the assistance. Financial support should also be disclosed in the funding statement.

7. Ghost Authorship

Ghost authorship includes concealing a person who qualifies as an author. Undisclosed writing or analytical assistance can also mislead readers even when the person belongs in the acknowledgements rather than the author list. All material contributions should be represented honestly in the appropriate place.

A concern should identify the omitted contribution and available evidence. The author group should explain the discrepancy; an unsupported allegation should not be treated as proof of misconduct.

8. Guest and Gift Authorship

Guest or gift authorship means assigning author credit to someone who does not meet the criteria, for example to use a prominent name, reward a favour or satisfy a hierarchy. Purchasing or exchanging author positions is likewise unacceptable. Consent to being named does not make an otherwise ineligible person an author.

Authors should check that every listed person can describe a qualifying contribution. Seniority, friendship, a supervisory title or a commercial relationship cannot substitute for that contribution.

9. Adding or Removing an Author

Requests should state the manuscript reference, the existing and proposed author lists, the reason for the change and the affected contribution statements. Provide agreement from every listed author and from each person proposed for addition or removal. A new author must meet the criteria and approve the manuscript; removal must not conceal another person’s contribution or evade responsibility.

Disagreements should be disclosed to the editorial office rather than resolved by quietly changing names in a revised file. The journal should not be expected to settle employment, intellectual-property or institutional disputes.

VERIFY A2 — Confirm the editor authorised to decide authorship-change requests, the accepted request channel, any form or supporting-document requirements, and the route for institutional clarification. No fixed deadline, automatic approval or automatic publication hold is claimed.

10. Authorship Changes after Submission

The explanation and agreement requirements apply during review, revision, acceptance and proof preparation. Send a reasoned request to the editorial office; uploading a different byline or changing an OJS entry is not a substitute for review of that request. Ensure that the manuscript and submission details remain consistent once a change has been authorised.

After publication, an authorship concern should be submitted with the article title or DOI and supporting information. A change to the published author record requires editorial consideration and an appropriately transparent correction where warranted; it should not be treated as a silent replacement of the published record. See Corrections, Retractions and Expressions of Concern Policy.

VERIFY A3 — Confirm the practical procedure for post-publication authorship corrections and updates to article files, OJS records and deposited metadata. No particular turnaround time or completed metadata-update mechanism is asserted.

All authors should knowingly agree to submission, the author list and order, their contribution statements and the final version for publication. Keep traceable written confirmation rather than assuming that silence means consent. For a proposed change, seek confirmation from every current author and every person being added or removed.

If an author cannot be contacted, has died or disputes a change, explain the circumstances to the editorial office. Do not fabricate consent or present the corresponding author’s signature as another person’s approval.

VERIFY A4 — Confirm how individual consent is obtained and retained, which evidence is accepted, and how exceptional cases are referred for a decision. A universal signed form or automated confirmation email to every author has not been verified.

12. Conflict Disclosure

Each author should disclose financial and non-financial relationships relevant to the research or its presentation, including relevant employment, consultancy, ownership, patents and personal or professional relationships. Disclose funding and the sponsor’s role where applicable. If no relevant interests exist, state that clearly.

The corresponding author may compile disclosures but should not invent a negative declaration for a co-author. Update the information if circumstances change during assessment. A disclosed relationship does not, by itself, establish wrongdoing. See the journal’s Conflicts of Interest principles.

13. ORCID Recommendation

Authors are encouraged to provide their own ORCID iD, a free persistent researcher identifier, in the form https://orcid.org/ followed by their identifier. It helps distinguish people with similar names. An ORCID iD does not establish authorship eligibility or replace consent; do not supply another person’s iD.

VERIFY A5 — Confirm whether the journal requires ORCID for any author category and which authentication and metadata features are enabled. This page recommends ORCID; it does not assert mandatory registration or verified technical integration.

Questions and Authorship Concerns

Use the journal’s Contact page or the channel described under Ethical Complaints Contact. Include the manuscript reference or article DOI, the specific concern and relevant evidence. Mailbox monitoring and independent escalation remain subject to the VERIFY note in the ethics statement; no new contact person or response deadline is invented here.

Related Policy and Guidance

The existing journal ethics statement is the policy context. ICMJE authorship guidance, CRediT and ORCID provide supporting reference material; these links do not imply membership, endorsement or adoption of unverified systems.

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