Research Wave and the Journal of Cognition and AI (JCAI) strictly adhere to the authorship guidelines established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). Proper attribution of authorship is critical to maintaining academic integrity and accountability.
Criteria for Authorship
To qualify as an author on a manuscript submitted to our journals, an individual must meet all of the following criteria:
- Substantial Contribution: Contribute significantly to the conception or design of the work, or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data.
- Drafting & Revision: Draft the work or critically revise it for important intellectual content.
- Final Approval: Provide final approval of the version to be published before submission.
- Accountability: Accept accountability for all aspects of the work, ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part are appropriately investigated and resolved.
Order of Authorship & Acknowledgment
The sequence of authors should be determined by the relative overall contributions to the manuscript and must be mutually agreed upon by all co-authors prior to submission.
Individuals who participated in the research or manuscript preparation but do not meet all four criteria for authorship should not be listed as authors. Instead, their contributions (e.g., funding acquisition, general supervision, language editing) should be formally recognized in the Acknowledgments section.
Author Responsibilities
All listed authors are collectively responsible for the integrity of the submission. Authors must:
- Include all eligible contributors and ensure no deserving author is unfairly excluded.
- Explicitly disclose any potential or existing conflicts of interest.
- Cooperate fully with the editorial board in resolving any queries or concerns that may arise after publication.
Unacceptable Practices
Research Wave maintains a zero-tolerance policy toward unethical authorship attribution. The following practices are strictly prohibited:
- Honorary (Guest) Authorship: Including individuals as authors solely out of respect or due to their position of authority, without them having made a substantial intellectual contribution.
- Ghost Authorship: Failing to list individuals who have made substantial contributions and fulfill the authorship criteria.
Authorship Disputes
We encourage research teams to resolve any authorship disputes internally before submission. If an authorship dispute arises during the peer-review process or after publication, the journal will not act as an adjudicator.
If the dispute remains unresolved among the authors, the Editor-in-Chief may intervene to mediate the situation following standard COPE guidance, which may involve contacting the authors' respective institutions to facilitate a resolution.