Authorship Criteria & Guidelines
Believers Medical Journal (BeMJ) is committed to transparent, responsible, and ethical authorship practices. Authorship recognizes substantial intellectual contributions to scholarly work and carries responsibility for the accuracy, originality, integrity, and appropriate presentation of the published research.
This policy follows the authorship framework established by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) and is informed by relevant Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) principles.
ICMJE Authorship Criteria
In accordance with the ICMJE authorship framework, each person listed as an author of a Believers Medical Journal article should meet all four of the following criteria:
1
Substantial Contribution
Contribute substantially to the conception or design of the work, or to the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data.
2
Drafting and Critical Revision
Participate in drafting the manuscript or critically revising it for important intellectual content.
3
Final Approval
Approve the final version of the manuscript before publication.
4
Accountability and Integrity
Agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work and to participate appropriately in addressing questions concerning its accuracy or integrity.
Contributor Recognition
Individuals who contribute to a study but do not satisfy all authorship requirements should not be listed as authors. Their contributions may instead be acknowledged in the Acknowledgments section, with appropriate permission where required.
General Author Responsibilities
Authors are expected to:
- Ensure that the submitted manuscript is original and appropriately acknowledges previous scholarly work.
- Avoid plagiarism, duplicate publication, redundant publication, and simultaneous submission to multiple journals.
- Maintain relevant research data, records, and supporting materials and provide them when reasonably requested by the Editorial Office.
- Disclose relevant financial, institutional, professional, or personal competing interests.
- Obtain appropriate ethical approval and informed consent where applicable.
- Provide accurate author information, affiliations, and ORCID iDs where available or required.
- Ensure that all information presented in the manuscript is accurate and appropriately supported.
Corresponding Author Responsibilities
The corresponding author serves as the principal communication contact between the authors and BeMJ throughout submission, peer review, publication, and post-publication processes.
The corresponding author should:
- Confirm that all listed authors have reviewed and approved the submitted manuscript.
- Confirm approval of the final version intended for publication.
- Verify author names, institutional affiliations, email addresses, ORCID iDs, funding information, and relevant declarations.
- Obtain agreement from all affected authors before requesting an addition, removal, or change in the order of authorship.
- Remain available to respond to reasonable editorial or post-publication questions concerning the article, including corrections, clarifications, data, and research-integrity matters.
Unacceptable Authorship Practices
Believers Medical Journal does not accept authorship practices that misrepresent individual contributions. Concerns regarding authorship may be assessed by the Editorial Office, and appropriate editorial action may be taken in accordance with the circumstances and applicable publication-ethics principles.
Guest Authorship
Listing an individual as an author despite the person not meeting the journal's authorship requirements, including situations where authorship is granted because of professional reputation, institutional position, or influence.
Ghost Authorship
Failing to acknowledge an individual who made a substantial contribution that would otherwise qualify for authorship or appropriate contributor recognition.
Gift or Honorary Authorship
Adding an individual as an author because of seniority, friendship, academic status, supervision, or other relationships without a qualifying scholarly contribution.
Purchased or Paper-Mill Authorship
Purchasing, selling, exchanging, or commercially arranging authorship positions without a legitimate contribution to the research or manuscript.
Coercive Authorship
Using academic authority, employment status, institutional influence, or other forms of pressure to obtain or assign authorship without an appropriate contribution.
AI Systems as Authors
Generative AI systems, chatbots, and large language models cannot be listed as authors because they cannot take responsibility for scholarly work, approve a manuscript, disclose competing interests, or respond to questions concerning research integrity.
Changes in Authorship
Requests to add, remove, or reorder authors after manuscript submission must be made by the corresponding author and should include a clear explanation of the proposed change.
Written agreement from all affected existing and proposed authors may be required. The journal may request additional documentation or institutional clarification when necessary.
During Peer Review
Authorship-change requests should be supported by written agreement from all affected authors. Editorial processing may be temporarily suspended while the request and supporting information are assessed.
After Acceptance or Publication
Requests for changes after acceptance or publication will be considered only when adequately justified and appropriately documented. Where a post-publication authorship change is approved, the journal may document the change through a formal correction notice.
Authorship Disputes
Where an authorship dispute cannot be resolved among the individuals concerned, BeMJ may suspend editorial processing and request that the relevant institution or appropriate authority review the matter. The journal does not replace institutional procedures for adjudicating authorship disputes but may take appropriate editorial action based on reliable findings provided to the journal.
ORCID iD
Believers Medical Journal encourages authors to provide authenticated ORCID iDs to support accurate author identification, reduce ambiguity between researchers with similar names, improve metadata quality, and connect published research with the appropriate scholarly record.
Authors should ensure that the ORCID iD provided in a submission belongs to the individual identified as the corresponding author or respective contributor.
CRediT Contributor Roles
Where applicable, authors are encouraged to describe individual contributions using the CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy).
Relevant contributor roles may include:
Writing – Review & Editing
Contribution statements should accurately reflect the actual work performed by each contributor.
Generative Artificial Intelligence and AI-Assisted Technologies
AI systems, chatbots, and large language models cannot be listed as authors of manuscripts submitted to BeMJ.
Authors should disclose substantive use of generative AI or AI-assisted technologies when such tools have materially contributed to manuscript preparation, analysis, or scholarly communication, as applicable.
Human authors remain fully responsible for reviewing and verifying AI-assisted content, including factual accuracy, interpretation, citations, originality, confidentiality, and the overall integrity of the submitted manuscript.
Policy Alignment and Publication Ethics
Believers Medical Journal (BeMJ) applies its authorship and contributorship procedures in accordance with the ICMJE authorship framework and relevant principles of responsible publication ethics. Authorship concerns, contribution disputes, and suspected misrepresentation are considered fairly and confidentially.
Authorship Declaration
Authors are responsible for ensuring the accuracy of the author list, institutional affiliations, ORCID iDs, contribution statements, and competing-interest declarations submitted with their manuscript. BeMJ may request clarification or supporting documentation regarding authorship and may take appropriate editorial action when credible concerns are identified.