Authorship
The Journal of Innovation Management (JIM) adheres to, and is guided by COPE's Discussion Document on Authorship, Authorship and Contributorship supporting resources, and Flowcharts around its requirements on transparency around authorship, who contributed to the work, in what capacity, as well as processes for managing potential disputes.
According to COPE's Discussion Document on Authorship, "there is great importance of transparency in the published record in order to maintain trust in the integrity of scholarly publishing, particularly when editors are faced with authorship disputes. The responsibility for upholding authorship standards for" JIM rests with the Editors-in-Chief; however, JIM "Editors must rely on the authors themselves to be truthful and transparent in their declarations of contribution. Although COPE advises that editors are not in a position to make determinations of authorship on a manuscript, COPE’s resources" are used to assist JIM Editors recognise potential authorship problems and provide practical advice and best practice to minimise such problems.
Definition of Authorship
According to COPE's Discussion Document on Authorship, "Authorship can refer to the creator or originator of an idea (eg, the author of the theory of relativity) or the individual or individuals who develop and bring to fruition the product that disseminates intellectual or creative works (eg, the author of a poem or a scholarly article)."
Each individual designated as an author in JIM publications must meet the following minimum requirements that define authorship:
- make a substantial contribution to the work (drafted or revised critically for important intellectual content);
- approve the version to be published;
- accountable for the work and its published form, including ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.
Detecting Potential Authorship Problems
JIM Editors are guided by the following COPE resources on how to detect the warning signs potentially indicating authorship problems:
Should the author list appear to be incomplete (ghost authorship) or should underserving (i.e. gift or guest) authors be included, JIM Editors will take appropriate action, which may include suspending the peer review process, reviewing the CRediT Statement, liaising with the corresponding author to request declaration that all authors meet the authorship criteria and that no authors have been omitted, reminding corresponding author of JIM’ s authorship policies and of their duties to ensure the author list is correct and complete. If needed, JIM Editors could request further information on the exact contribution of each author and could liaise with all authors involved. Authorship change (i.e. addition or removal) will require the agreement, in writing, from all authors. In case of suspected misconduct, JIM Editors reserve the right to refer the matter to the Governance/Ethics Committee of the institution to which the authors are affiliated. JIM Editors are guided by the COPE resources on handling ghost, guest and gift authorship, as detailed at https://publicationethics.org/sites/default/files/ghost-authorship-submitted-manuscript-cope-flowchart.pdf.
Preventing Potential Authorship Problems
What JIM Authors should do:
In an attempt to prevent/minimize the risk of authorship problems arising, anyone considering publishing in JIM should, before submission:
- Encourage an ethical authorship culture;
- Start discussing authorship when you plan your research;
- Decide authorship before you start each article.
What JIM does:
In an attempt to prevent/minimize the risk of authorship problems arising, JIM’s submission policy requires, (on the Title Page – as JIM has a double-blind peer review policy):
- All authors’ full name, email, affiliation (name, state, country), ORCID;
- Same details for the nominated corresponding author;
- CRediT Statement for each author, based on the Credit Taxonomy;
- Upon submission, an automated confirmation of receipt email is sent to ALL authors of the paper. This enables JIM to verify email addresses, and ensure all authors receive confirmation of receipt of the submission.
Authorship Disputes
JIM classifies authorship disputes as any dispute that does not fit within the ICMJE Guidelines around what constitutes ‘misconduct’. Authorship disputes are largely issues around interpretation, such as whether someone’s contribution was ‘substantial’ or not. JIM recommends consulting the following resources: Authorship and Contributorship; Flowcharts; Post-publication discussions and corrections; Complaints and appeals; Good Publication Practice 2022.
Course of action for disputes raised to the handling JIM Editor:
- All disputes are to be submitted in writing via email to editors@open-jim.org for consideration by the handling Editor-in-Chief who will: acknowledge receipt of the dispute (including emails of all listed authors); discuss internally; be guided by COPE resources around journal response best-practice (including: requirement for escalation to either a statement of concern or reclassification to an issue of ‘misconduct’; or closed as a resolved issue);
Important:
- Authorship disputes should ideally be resolved by the authors themselves through effective communication and negotiation strategies;
- Evidence of all dispute- and dispute-resolution communication/correspondence records, pertaining to a manuscript, must be maintained by the corresponding author for future reference, if required;
- In the case of a dispute having been raised to JIM, JIM should also be notified via email to editors@open-jim.org upon resolution by those involved and/or if any follow up action is required. Only in the case of an inability of the authors to come to a resolution, JIM will bring affiliation institutions into the conversation;
- Submitted disputes, and JIM responses MUST BE kept by both parties as a written record, remain factual, and void of emotion.
Authorship Misconduct
Disputes are classified as misconduct when they do fit within the ICMJE Guidelines around what constitutes ‘misconduct’. Types of misconduct, and the process for raising / addressing allegations can be found on JIM's Misconduct in Publication page.