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.
The journal has confirmed the contribution-statement, consent, authorship-change, record-retention and ORCID requirements described below.
Contents
- 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 Requirement
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.
A contribution statement is mandatory for every article and is published in the Author Contributions section of the final PDF. Authors may use CRediT roles, but the CRediT taxonomy is optional rather than mandatory.
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.
A request to add, remove or reorder an author is submitted to admin@srt-journal.uz or @kmurojaat_livebot. The Editor-in-Chief reviews and authorises the request. It must explain the reason and include written consent from every current author and every person being added or removed; institutional clarification may be sought when necessary.
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.
A post-publication authorship change is issued through a separate correction notice. The article PDF, OJS record and Crossref metadata are updated by the Technical Editor, with the original publication history and linked notice retained.
11. Consent of All Authors
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.
Individual consent may be shown by confirmation from the author’s personal email address or by a signed consent document. The evidence and related authorship-change records are retained for up to three years. Exceptional or disputed cases are decided by the Editor-in-Chief using the journal’s complaint and integrity procedures.
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 Requirement
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.
ORCID is mandatory for every author for new submissions and manuscripts not yet finally published from 2 September 2026. The requirement is not applied retrospectively as a mandatory condition to articles published before that date. Authors must provide their own ORCID; identifiers must not be invented or assigned by the journal.
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. The Technical Editor monitors the mailbox, and the confirmed complaint and escalation procedure applies to authorship concerns.
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.