Authorship Criteria

Authorship Criteria

1. Purpose and Scope

Jurnal Wahana Karya Ilmiah Pendidikan is committed to maintaining high standards of academic integrity, transparency, fairness, and accountability in scholarly publishing. This policy establishes the criteria for authorship and the responsibilities of authors and contributors to ensure that scholarly credit is assigned appropriately and that all individuals listed as authors accept responsibility for their contributions to the published work.

This policy applies to all manuscripts submitted to the journal, including original research articles, literature reviews, and conceptual articles. It is intended for prospective authors, authors, peer reviewers, editors, editorial board members, and researchers.

The policy is informed by the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) and the ethical guidance of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), adapted reasonably to the interdisciplinary and practice-oriented context of educational research.

2. Criteria for Authorship

An individual may be listed as an author only when all the following criteria are satisfied:

1. Substantial intellectual contribution. The individual has made a substantial contribution to at least one relevant aspect of the work, including its conception or design; the collection, acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data; the development of a theoretical or conceptual framework; or the identification, evaluation, and synthesis of scholarly literature.
2. Contribution to the manuscript. The individual has participated in drafting the manuscript or critically reviewing it for important intellectual content.
3. Final approval. The individual has reviewed and approved the final version of the manuscript submitted for publication, including any final revisions made during the editorial process that require author approval.
4. Accountability and integrity. The individual agrees to be accountable for their own contributions and to contribute appropriately to ensuring the integrity of the entire work.

All four criteria must be met. A substantial contribution alone does not automatically qualify an individual for authorship if the remaining criteria are not fulfilled.

3. Authorship in Different Types of Manuscripts

3.1. Research Articles

For empirical research articles, qualifying contributions may include developing research questions or hypotheses, designing the research methodology, collecting or obtaining relevant data, conducting data analysis, interpreting findings, and critically developing the manuscript.

Routine data collection or technical assistance alone does not automatically qualify an individual for authorship.

3.2. Literature Reviews

Qualifying contributions may include formulating review questions, developing search strategies, critically assessing literature, synthesizing findings, and developing interpretations and conclusions.

Merely supplying references or performing routine bibliographic assistance does not by itself establish eligibility for authorship.

3.3. Conceptual Articles

Qualifying contributions may include developing theoretical propositions, constructing conceptual frameworks, critically examining theories, integrating relevant literature, or developing original scholarly arguments.

4. Contributions That Do Not Independently Qualify for Authorship

The following activities, when performed without the substantive intellectual contribution and other responsibilities required by this policy, do not independently justify authorship:

• Obtaining research funding or financial support.
• Providing facilities, equipment, institutional resources, or access to research settings.
• Providing routine technical assistance, administrative support, or general supervision.
• Performing language editing, proofreading, formatting, or routine manuscript preparation.
• Performing routine data entry or transcription without a qualifying intellectual contribution.
• Holding a senior academic, managerial, or institutional position.
• Having a personal, professional, or institutional relationship with an author.

Individuals who contribute but do not satisfy all authorship criteria should, where appropriate, be acknowledged accurately in the Acknowledgements section, subject to their permission.

5. Author Identification and Contribution Transparency

All authors must be identified accurately in the submitted manuscript and in the journal's submission system. Author names, institutional affiliations, contact details where required, and the corresponding author's designation must be consistent across submission documents.

Authors are expected to provide a clear and truthful description of their respective contributions when requested. Where appropriate, authors may use the Contributor Roles Taxonomy (CRediT). CRediT does not independently determine eligibility for authorship; every listed author must still satisfy the journal's authorship criteria.

All authors must agree to submission. No individual may be listed as an author without their knowledge and consent.

6. Order of Authors

The order of authors must be determined collectively based on their relative intellectual contributions, disciplinary conventions, and mutual agreement.

All authors must agree on the author list and its order before submission. The editorial team does not ordinarily determine authorship order or resolve disagreements about relative contributions.

7. Corresponding Author: Role and Responsibilities

The corresponding author is the primary contact for the journal throughout submission, peer review, editorial processing, and publication. This role is primarily administrative and communicative; it does not automatically confer greater authorship credit than that held by other authors.

The corresponding author is responsible for:

1. Coordinating submission and ensuring required documents are complete and accurate.
2. Confirming that all listed authors meet the authorship criteria.
3. Obtaining every author's approval of the manuscript, author list, order, and submission.
4. Coordinating accurate author contribution statements.
5. Coordinating disclosures, including funding, conflicts of interest, ethics approvals, and permissions where applicable.
6. Managing journal correspondence, editorial decisions, reviewer comments, revisions, and proofs.
7. Keeping co-authors informed of significant editorial communications and substantive changes.
8. Coordinating post-publication responses, corrections, and investigations where needed.

Delegating administrative tasks does not eliminate the corresponding author's responsibility to coordinate the submission and ensure that required confirmations have been obtained.

8. Responsibilities of All Authors

All authors share responsibility for ensuring that the manuscript is original, accurate, ethically prepared, and consistent with the journal's publication policies. Each author must:

• Make a genuine intellectual contribution and satisfy all authorship criteria.
• Approve the submitted manuscript and any final version requiring author approval.
• Agree to submission and the declared author order.
• Ensure that their contribution is accurately represented.
• Understand the parts of the work for which they are directly responsible.
• Cooperate in addressing questions about accuracy, validity, originality, or integrity.
• Disclose relevant funding, conflicts of interest, and other required information.
• Attribute sources and obtain necessary permissions for materials used.
• Cooperate with the journal in correcting errors or addressing substantiated concerns.

An author must not approve a manuscript merely as a formality without reviewing its content sufficiently to understand and accept their responsibilities.

9. Changes to Authorship After Submission or Publication

Changes after submission must be exceptional, justified, transparent, and supported by the agreement of all affected parties. Requests to add, remove, or reorder authors must be submitted in writing and include the reasons for the change, relevant contribution details, and written agreement from all affected authors.

The journal may suspend editorial processing while the request is assessed. Following publication, any correction to authorship will be handled transparently according to publication-ethics principles. A request does not guarantee approval.

10. Authorship Disputes

Authorship disputes may involve eligibility, contributions, author order, omitted authors, unauthorized inclusion, or changes to the author list. The journal will assess concerns impartially, request relevant explanations and evidence, and follow applicable COPE guidance and editorial procedures.

Unresolved disputes should ordinarily be referred to the relevant institution or institutions for investigation where appropriate. The journal may pause review or publication while a material dispute remains unresolved.

11. Guest, Gift, and Ghost Authorship

The journal does not permit guest, gift, or honorary authorship.

• Guest or gift authorship refers to listing an individual who does not satisfy all authorship criteria, for example because of seniority, reputation, position, funding support, or personal relationships.
• Ghost authorship refers to failing to acknowledge a qualifying contributor or concealing a contributor's role in a way that misrepresents the work.

Authorship decisions must be based on actual contributions and fulfillment of the established criteria.

12. Acknowledgements and Other Contributions

Contributors who do not satisfy all authorship criteria may be recognized in the Acknowledgements section, provided their contributions are described accurately and permission has been obtained where appropriate.

Funding sources and institutional support should be disclosed in the relevant sections required by the journal. Acknowledgement must not be used to conceal a qualifying intellectual contribution.

13. Use of Artificial Intelligence and Authorship

Artificial intelligence (AI) tools, including generative AI systems, cannot be listed as authors because they cannot independently approve a manuscript, accept accountability, or take responsibility for scholarly work.

Where applicable, authors must disclose AI use in accordance with the journal's policies and submission requirements, accurately describing the tool's role.

Human authors remain responsible for verifying AI-assisted content, ensuring proper attribution, protecting confidential information, and preventing plagiarism, fabricated references, or unsupported claims.

14. Responsibilities of Reviewers, Editors, and Editorial Board Members

Peer reviewers, editors, and editorial board members are expected to uphold fairness, transparency, confidentiality, and publication integrity when handling authorship matters. They should:

• Assess authorship concerns objectively and without discrimination.
• Avoid requesting authorship unless the criteria are genuinely satisfied.
• Declare conflicts of interest and refrain from decisions where impartiality may be compromised.
• Maintain manuscript confidentiality.
• Report suspected guest, gift, ghost, or otherwise inappropriate authorship.
• Follow COPE guidance when handling allegations and disputes.
• Support appropriate corrections when authorship errors are established.

Editors are responsible for applying this policy consistently and ensuring that authorship concerns are handled fairly.

15. Policy Framework and Implementation

This policy is based on the following principal references:

1. International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals, particularly the section on defining the roles of authors and contributors.
2. Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). COPE Discussion Document: Authorship, Version 2, September 2019.
3. Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Ethics Toolkit for a Successful Editorial Office, particularly the core practice on authorship and contributorship.

These sources provide the ethical and procedural foundation for the policy. The ICMJE authorship criteria are adapted reasonably to educational research, literature reviews, and conceptual scholarship.

The editorial team is responsible for communicating this policy to authors and applying it consistently throughout submission, peer review, publication, and post-publication processes.

Faculty of Islamic Studies, Universitas Singaperbangsa Karawang (UNSIKA), Indonesia