Authorship Criteria

JoEMS (Journal of Education and Management Studies) recognises authorship as both scholarly recognition and responsibility for published research. Authorship must reflect substantive intellectual contributions to the work and must be assigned fairly and transparently.

1. Eligibility for Authorship

Every person listed as an author must meet all four of the following criteria:

Substantial contribution: Contribute substantially to developing the research idea or study design, or to acquiring, analysing, or interpreting the evidence.
Intellectual involvement in writing: Prepare the manuscript or critically revise its arguments, methods, interpretation, or other substantive content.
Approval: Approve the manuscript submitted to JoEMS, subsequent substantive revisions, and the final version intended for publication.
Accountability: Accept responsibility for their contribution and cooperate in investigating and resolving concerns about the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work.

All individuals who meet these criteria must be included as authors. Contributors who have made substantial intellectual contributions should have an opportunity to participate in manuscript preparation, review, and final approval.

2. Contributions That Do Not Establish Authorship

Funding, administrative authority, general supervision, access to research sites, routine data collection, technical support, or language editing alone do not establish eligibility for authorship.

In educational and management research, being a supervisor, department head, school principal, organisational manager, research participant, or institutional representative does not automatically justify inclusion as an author. Students and early-career researchers must receive appropriate credit for their contributions.

Contributors who do not meet all authorship criteria should be recognised in the Acknowledgements, with their permission and a description of their assistance.

3. Author Contributions and Order

Authors must agree on the author list, name order, and corresponding author before submission. These decisions should reflect actual contributions and relevant disciplinary conventions.

Each manuscript must include an Author Contributions statement describing individual responsibilities. Authors are encouraged to use the Contributor Roles Taxonomy (CRediT), including relevant roles such as conceptualisation, methodology, investigation, formal analysis, and manuscript preparation or revision. Assigning a CRediT role does not, by itself, establish eligibility for authorship.

Gift, guest, honorary, purchased, and ghost authorship are unacceptable. No individual may be included without qualifying contributions and consent, or excluded despite meeting the criteria.

4. Corresponding Author

The corresponding author serves as the contact between the author group and the journal throughout submission, review, publication, and subsequent correspondence.

The corresponding author must confirm that all authors qualify, approve submission, and agree on their listed contributions and order. They must also ensure that author names, affiliations, contact information, and required declarations are accurate, and communicate editorial decisions and requests to all co-authors. This coordinating role does not remove other authors’ responsibilities.

5. Changes to Authorship

Requests to add or remove an author, change author order, or change the corresponding author after submission must be submitted to the editor with:

A clear explanation and, where relevant, supporting evidence of contributions.
Written agreement from every affected author, including anyone being added or removed.

Changes require editorial approval. Publication may be paused while a request is assessed. Approved changes to a published author list will be documented through an appropriate correction.

6. Artificial Intelligence and Authorship

Artificial intelligence tools, chatbots, and large language models cannot be authors because they cannot consent to publication or accept responsibility for the work.

Authors must disclose substantive use of generative AI in research or manuscript preparation, identifying the tool, version where available, purpose, and extent of use in an appropriate manuscript section. Human authors remain responsible for checking the accuracy, originality, references, and integrity of all submitted content.

7. Authorship Disputes

Authors should resolve disagreements before submission. Unresolved disputes may be referred to the relevant institutions for investigation; the journal does not determine individual contributions on behalf of the authors.

JoEMS may suspend editorial processing or publication while a dispute is investigated. Confirmed authorship misrepresentation may result in rejection or appropriate post-publication action, depending on the findings and their implications for the published record.