Authorship & Contribution Policy

Authorship must reflect substantial intellectual contributions. GVR follows ICMJE criteria.

Authorship Criteria
Global Virology Reports (GVR) adheres strictly to the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) Recommendations for defining authorship. To be listed as an author, an individual must have met all four of the following criteria:

1.     Substantial Contributions to Conception and Design, Data Acquisition, or Data Analysis and Interpretation: This includes significant input into the study's idea, experimental design, execution of experiments, or the analysis and interpretation of the resulting data.

2.     Drafting the Article or Revising it Critically for Important Intellectual Content: Authors must have been actively involved in writing the manuscript or in providing critical revisions that substantially improve its scholarly content.

3.     Final Approval of the Version to Be Published: All authors must formally approve the final, submitted manuscript and any subsequent revisions.

4.     Agreement to be Accountable for All Aspects of the Work: All authors must agree to be responsible for ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

All individuals who meet these criteria must be listed as authors. Those who do not meet all four criteria should be acknowledged in the "Acknowledgements" section.

Specification of Author Contributions
To ensure transparency, GVR requires the use of the CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy) to detail the specific contributions of each author. This must be provided at the time of submission. Roles include, but are not limited to:

·       Conceptualization

·       Methodology

·       Investigation

·       Formal Analysis

·       Writing – Original Draft

·       Writing – Review & Editing

·       Supervision

·       Funding Acquisition

Prohibited Authorship Practices
GVR maintains a zero-tolerance policy towards unethical authorship practices:

·       Ghost Authorship: The exclusion of individuals who have made substantial contributions and meet the authorship criteria.

·       Guest/Gift Authorship: The inclusion of individuals (e.g., senior figures, heads of department) who have not met all four ICMJE criteria.

·       Honorary Authorship: Similar to guest authorship, this involves attributing authorship based on prestige or position rather than intellectual contribution.

Authorship Disputes
In the event of an authorship dispute, the journal will defer to the corresponding author to resolve the issue among the co-authors initially. If a resolution cannot be reached, the matter will be escalated and handled in accordance with the flowcharts and guidelines provided by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Corresponding Author Responsibilities
The corresponding author is designated as the primary point of contact for the manuscript. They are responsible for:

·       Managing all communication with the journal.

·       Ensuring all co-authors have reviewed, approved, and agreed to be accountable for the final manuscript.

·       Completing the submission and providing the required documentation (e.g., authorship contributions, competing interests).

Changes in Authorship
Any changes to the authorship list (additions, deletions, or reordering) after initial submission must be formally requested by the corresponding author with explicit written confirmation (email is acceptable) from all co-authors, including any being added or removed. Such changes are subject to editorial approval and require a compelling reason.