Authorship

Articles submitted for publication should indicate the authors, that is, all persons who have made a significant contribution to the creation of the text, including the development of the work concept, data acquisition, analysis and interpretation, the creation of tools (such as measuring devices and software) enabling the acquisition and analysis of data, the creation of the original version of the text, its editing, substantive correction and revision.

Persons whose contribution was small (for example, obtaining funds, providing equipment, collecting data, supervising the research group) should be listed, for example, in the ‘Acknowledgements’, while those who did not make such a contribution should not be included in the list of authors.

The order of the names listed should be approved by all authors before the article is registered in the publication system.

Editorial measures preventing unfair practices

  1. The editors counteract unfair practices related to the incorrect indication of authorship, including phenomena defined as: ghost author, ghostwriter, guest author and gift author.
  • Ghost author – a person omitted from the list of authors, despite the fact that their contribution to the work was significant, for example, a person dealing with data analysis.
  • Ghostwriter – a person omitted from the list of authors who made a significant contribution to the creation, editing and correction of the text.
  • Guest author, gift author – a person included in the list of authors, although they did not contribute directly to the text (for example, the author’s supervisor, a person who was ‘gifted’ authorship to strengthen their CV or in exchange for adding a guest author to the publication).
  1. When registering an article in the publication system, the author submits a statement of the work’s originality and non-infringement of copyrights of third parties; the statement must be signed by all co-authors.
  2. Editors require disclosure of the contribution of individual authors to the article, respectively to: preparation of the research (A); data collection (B); statistical analysis of the results obtained (C); interpretation of the results obtained (D); preparation of the original version of the text (E); literature review (F); proofreading and revision of the text (G); and a statement that all the authors indicated meet the authorship criterion and that no person meeting this criterion has been omitted.
  3. Each author must approve the submitted and significantly modified version of the text, which is related to their contribution to the creation of the work.

Changes in the list of authors

  1. Changes in the list of authors should be notified by the corresponding author to the managing editor.
  2. These changes are admissible if significant changes recommended by a reviewer have been introduced to the content of the work, which require changes in the list of authors (for example, adding new data, requiring the addition of a new author, or deleting a fragment of the text, resulting in the removal of its author).
  3. All changes to the list of authors (for example, adding or removing an author, changing the order of authors) must be approved by all co-authors.
  4. Removal of an author’s name from the manuscript submitted for publication requires their written consent.
  5. An author who has changed their name during the publication process should report such a change to the managing editor.

Author identification

The editors encourage authors to provide their ORCID identifiers. The identifier is placed next to an author’s name on the information page of the article and in the publication. Providing an ORCID identifier allows for unambiguous identification of the author and their achievements throughout the course of their scientific careers, regardless of the place of work, position, degree, academic title or change of name.

Authors who do not have an account in the ORCID system are encouraged to register and obtain an individual scientist identifier. ORCID is an independent non-profit organisation that aims to gather information about career paths, research results and publications in one place. ORCID is integrated with many publishing platforms, institutions and data exchange systems around the world.

Author affiliation

  1. When submitting a text for publication, the affiliation of individual authors must be indicated.
  2. The author indicates the institution that has contributed to the creation of their work as the affiliation.