Authorship and contributorship

The Andalasian International Journal of Agricultural and Natural Sciences (AIJANS) is committed to transparent attribution, responsible authorship, and accountability for all published work. This policy applies to research articles, reviews, short communications, and any other scholarly content submitted to the journal. It draws on the COPE discussion document on authorship and the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing, Version 5 (2026).

1. Criteria for Authorship

AIJANS adopts the following four-part authorship standard. Every listed author must:

  1. Make a substantial contribution to the conception or design of the work, or to the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data;
  2. Draft the manuscript or critically revise it for important intellectual content;
  3. Approve the version submitted and the version accepted for publication; and
  4. Agree to be accountable for their own contributions and to cooperate in investigating and resolving questions concerning the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work.

Everyone who meets all four criteria should be named as an author. Funding acquisition, general supervision, administrative assistance, routine technical services, or language editing alone do not establish authorship. Such contributions may be recognised in the acknowledgments, with the contributor's permission. AIJANS does not permit honorary, gift, guest, or ghost authorship.

Authorship order must be agreed by all authors before submission. The journal does not prescribe a universal interpretation of author order or first, co-first, and corresponding authorship; any shared authorship designation must be explained clearly in the manuscript.

2. Contributor Roles and Attribution

At submission, the corresponding author must provide an individual author-contribution statement. AIJANS encourages the use of the CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy), where applicable. Relevant roles include conceptualization, methodology, software, validation, formal analysis, investigation, resources, data curation, writing (original draft), writing (review and editing), visualization, supervision, project administration, and funding acquisition.

A contribution statement must reflect actual work performed. Assigning a CRediT role does not, by itself, confer authorship: every author must still meet the authorship criteria above. Non-author contributors should be acknowledged separately, identifying their contributions and any relevant funding or professional support. Authors must obtain permission from named individuals before acknowledging them.

3. Responsibilities of the Corresponding Author

The corresponding author serves as the primary contact with AIJANS throughout submission, review, publication, and post-publication correspondence. The corresponding author must:

  • Ensure that all eligible contributors are included and that ineligible individuals are not listed as authors;
  • Verify that every author has reviewed and approved the manuscript, its submission to AIJANS, authorship order, contribution statement, and required declarations;
  • Coordinate revisions and obtain all authors' approval of the final accepted version;
  • Provide accurate contact details and respond promptly to editorial and post-publication inquiries;
  • Communicate material editorial correspondence and integrity concerns to all co-authors; and
  • Cooperate with requests for documentation concerning authorship, research integrity, and corrections.

Designation as corresponding author does not transfer the responsibilities of other authors to that person.

4. Author Identity and Affiliations

Authors must provide their accurate names, affiliations reflecting where the research was conducted, and reliable contact details. An ORCID iD is strongly encouraged for each author. Authors must not submit fabricated identities, misleading affiliations, or identifiers belonging to another person. Changes to names or affiliations after publication will be considered in accordance with privacy, accuracy, and the integrity of the scholarly record.

5. Use of Artificial Intelligence by Authors

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) systems, large language models, and automated content-generation tools cannot be named as authors because they cannot assume responsibility, approve a manuscript, or manage competing interests. Human authors remain fully responsible for the originality, accuracy, integrity, citations, permissions, and legality of all submitted material, including AI-assisted material.

Authors must disclose substantive use of generative AI for developing study designs or methods, writing or materially revising content, generating or interpreting data or analyses, creating or modifying figures, tables, images, graphical abstracts, or references. The disclosure should identify the tool and, where relevant, its version/provider, describe the purpose and extent of its use, and specify how the outputs were checked by the authors. Disclosures should appear in a clearly labelled Declaration of Generative AI Use section; methodological use that affects reproducibility must additionally be described in the Methods section.

Routine spelling, grammar, or formatting assistance that does not generate substantive scientific content need not be declared under this policy. Authors must independently verify AI-generated references and factual claims; fabricated citations, manipulated research evidence, and undisclosed synthetic data are unacceptable. AI-generated or AI-altered scientific images must not misrepresent underlying observations. For any AI use involving confidential manuscripts, participant data, or third-party materials, authors must comply with applicable consent, confidentiality, data protection, and intellectual property requirements.

Suggested declaration: “During the preparation of this manuscript, the authors used [tool, provider/version] for [specific purpose]. The authors reviewed and verified the relevant outputs and take full responsibility for the final content.” If there was no substantive generative AI use, authors may state: “The authors did not use generative AI to produce substantive content in this manuscript.”

6. Required Declarations

At submission, authors must provide accurate disclosures covering:

  • Competing interests: relevant financial and non-financial relationships that could influence or reasonably appear to influence the work; if none exist, state this explicitly;
  • Funding and support: all grants, institutional support, donated materials, equipment, services, and other assistance, including the role of funders; if none, state “No funding was received for this study” or equivalent;
  • Research ethics: relevant approval or exemption by an ethics review body, informed consent, and consent for publication where individuals could be identified, as applicable; and
  • Data availability: where supporting data, materials, and code may be accessed, or a justified explanation of applicable access restrictions.

Authors must update declarations if circumstances change before or after publication. These requirements operate alongside AIJANS's separate policies on competing interests, research ethics, data, and publication integrity where applicable.

7. Confidentiality and Responsible Communication

Authors must respect the confidentiality of unpublished peer-review reports, confidential editorial communications, identifiable participant information, and non-public third-party data. This does not prohibit lawful sharing of a preprint or research data where permitted under the journal's relevant policies, or legitimate confidential consultation with co-authors, research institutions, or advisers. Authors must not upload confidential editorial correspondence or third-party personal data to external AI services without appropriate authorization and safeguards.

8. Changes in Authorship

Any request to add, remove, or reorder authors, or to change the corresponding author, after initial submission must include a reasoned explanation and written agreement from all existing and proposed authors, including any author being removed. The corresponding author must submit the request through the journal's editorial system or official editorial contact before implementation. The Editor-in-Chief may request supporting evidence and may pause processing while the matter is examined.

Editors do not determine who deserves authorship on behalf of research institutions. Where agreement cannot be established or the evidence is disputed, the journal may refer the issue to the relevant institution(s) and suspend editorial action pending clarification. After publication, agreed and substantiated authorship changes will ordinarily be documented through a linked correction notice and corresponding metadata updates, rather than silently altering the publication record.

9. Authorship Disputes and Allegations

Questions or allegations of omitted contributors, ghost or guest authorship, misrepresented contributions, coercion, or disputed author order may be reported to the editorial office using the journal's published contact page. The report should identify the manuscript or article and provide relevant details and evidence.

AIJANS will acknowledge the concern, assess the available information, seek explanations from relevant parties when appropriate, and manage confidentiality and competing interests. The journal may temporarily suspend consideration, request institution-led investigation, or take proportionate editorial action. For published articles, outcomes may include a correction, an expression of concern, or retraction when justified. Editorial actions will follow relevant COPE guidance. Reports will be assessed fairly and should not be dismissed solely because they originate from outside the author group.

10. Non-Compliance and Post-Publication Accountability

Where credible evidence indicates that authorship criteria, contribution disclosures, AI declarations, or research-integrity obligations have been breached, AIJANS may request clarification or correction, delay review, reject a submission, or refer the matter to the relevant research institution. After publication, the journal may issue a correction, expression of concern, or retraction in accordance with its Corrections and Retractions Policy. Responses will be proportionate to the facts established, and the integrity of the published record will be preserved.

11. Policy References