The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals (ICMJE Recommendations 2018) provide guidelines for determining authorship in research papers. According to these recommendations, authorship should be based on four criteria:

• Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
• Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND
• Final approval of the version to be published; AND
• Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Moreover, authors should be able to identify which specific parts of the work were contributed by co-authors, and they should have confidence in the integrity of their co-authors' contributions.

Each article should have only one corresponding author. Additional contribution details, such as equal contributions, should be mentioned in the contributors or acknowledgement sections at the end of the article.

At The Razi International Medical Journal, all individuals designated as authors must meet all four ICMJE criteria for authorship, and those who meet these criteria should be identified as authors. Only natural persons over 18 years of age are recognized as authors. These criteria are intended to ensure that authorship is reserved for those who deserve credit and can take responsibility for the work. They should not be used to disqualify colleagues from authorship by denying them the opportunity to meet criterion #s 2 or 3. Hence, all individuals who meet the first criterion should have the opportunity to participate in the review, drafting, and final approval of the manuscript.

Those who conduct the research are responsible for identifying individuals who meet the authorship criteria, ideally during the planning stages of the work, and making necessary modifications as the research progresses. The corresponding author is primarily responsible for communication with the journal during manuscript submission, peer review, and publication, and is typically in charge of fulfilling the journal's administrative requirements related to authorship, ethics committee approval, and conflict of interest forms and statements. However, some of these duties may be delegated to one or more co-authors.

When a large multi-author group is involved in the research, they should collectively decide on the authorship list before commencing the work and confirm it before submitting the manuscript. All members named as authors in the group should meet all four criteria for authorship, including approval of the final manuscript, and they should be willing to take public responsibility for the work and have confidence in the accuracy and integrity of the contributions made by other group authors.

At The RIMJ, it is essential for authors to assure that all included authors meet the authorship criteria. Additionally, the journal seeks assurance that no one else who meets the criteria has been excluded as an author.

In cases of disagreements among authors, The RIMJ follows guidance from the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE):
How to handle authorship disputes: a guide for new researchers
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