AUTHORSHIP & CONTRIBUTORSHIP POLICY

AUTHORSHIP & CONTRIBUTORSHIP POLICY

Link Journal of Speech, Language and Audiology (JSLA)
Online ISSN 3105-5354 · Published by Link Medical Interface, Lahore, Pakistan

1. Purpose and Scope

Authorship confers both credit and accountability for published scholarship. This policy defines who qualifies as an author of a manuscript submitted to the Link Journal of Speech, Language and Audiology, how individual contributions are to be declared, and how the journal responds to disputed, undisclosed, or improperly assigned authorship. It applies to all article types published by the journal, including original research, systematic and narrative reviews, case reports, brief communications, commentaries, letters, and editorials, and it binds all authors, co-authors, editors, and reviewers associated with the journal.

2. Criteria for Authorship

JSLA applies the authorship criteria established by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. An individual qualifies for authorship only where all four of the following conditions are satisfied. First, the individual has made a substantial contribution to the conception or design of the work, or to the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of the data reported. Second, the individual has drafted the manuscript or revised it critically for important intellectual content. Third, the individual has approved the final version submitted for publication. Fourth, the individual agrees to be accountable for all aspects of the work, ensuring that questions relating to the accuracy or integrity of any part of it are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Contributors who satisfy the first criterion should be given the opportunity to satisfy the remaining three, and no contributor who meets all four criteria may be omitted from the byline. Conversely, satisfying one criterion alone does not establish entitlement to authorship. Individuals whose involvement is limited to securing funding, providing access to a clinical population or dataset, general departmental or institutional supervision, routine data entry, technical assistance, language editing, or clerical preparation of the manuscript do not qualify as authors and should be recognised in the Acknowledgements section with their written permission.

Where a study is conducted by a large collaborative group, the group must designate the individuals who accept direct responsibility for the manuscript and who meet the four criteria in full. Other members of the group may be listed as collaborators in the Acknowledgements or in a supplementary group-authorship listing.

3. Contributor Roles Statement

Every submission to JSLA must be accompanied by a Contributor Roles Statement placed before the reference list. The journal uses the CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy) framework, and each named author must be assigned at least one of the following roles: conceptualization; methodology; software; validation; formal analysis; investigation; resources; data curation; writing – original draft; writing – review and editing; visualization; supervision; project administration; and funding acquisition. Where more than one author shares a role, this should be stated explicitly. The statement is published with the article and forms part of the permanent scholarly record.

4. Corresponding Author

Each manuscript must designate one corresponding author, who serves as the primary point of contact with the editorial office throughout submission, peer review, revision, production, and post-publication correspondence. The corresponding author is responsible for confirming that all named authors meet the criteria set out above, that no qualifying contributor has been omitted, that all authors have seen and approved the submitted version, and that any changes requested by the journal are communicated to and endorsed by the full author group. The corresponding author must also ensure the accuracy of author names, affiliations, ORCID identifiers, and contact details, and must remain reachable after publication to respond to queries concerning the work.

5. Prohibited Authorship Practices

The journal does not permit gift, guest, or honorary authorship, in which an individual is credited on the basis of seniority, institutional position, or personal relationship rather than genuine intellectual contribution. It likewise does not permit ghost authorship, in which an individual who has made a substantial contribution to the work is omitted from the byline. The sale, purchase, or exchange of authorship positions, and the use of any third-party service that brokers authorship, constitutes serious misconduct and will result in immediate rejection or, where the work has been published, retraction and notification of the authors' institutions.

6. Changes to Authorship After Submission

The author list and the order in which authors appear should be agreed by all contributors before submission. Any request to add, remove, or reorder authors after submission must be made in writing by the corresponding author and must state the reason for the change, and must be accompanied by written confirmation of agreement from every author, including the individual being added or removed. The Editor-in-Chief will consider such requests at their discretion, and requests made after acceptance will be granted only in exceptional and well-justified circumstances. Authorship changes are not accepted after publication except through a formal correction notice.

7. Artificial Intelligence and Authorship

Artificial intelligence tools, large language models, and AI-assisted writing technologies cannot be listed as authors, since they are incapable of holding accountability for the integrity of the work, approving a final version, or responding to post-publication enquiry. Where such tools have been used in the preparation of a manuscript, their use must be disclosed in accordance with the journal's Policy for the Use of Generative AI and AI-Assisted Technologies, and the human authors retain full responsibility for the accuracy, originality, and ethical soundness of the entire submission.

8. Deceased and Unreachable Authors

Where an author dies or becomes unreachable during preparation, review, or production, the corresponding author should notify the editorial office. The individual may remain in the byline provided their contribution satisfied the authorship criteria, and a footnote recording the circumstances will be added. In such cases the corresponding author accepts responsibility for confirming the accuracy of that author's contribution as reported.

9. Authorship Disputes

Disputes concerning authorship or author order are, in the first instance, matters for resolution between the contributors and, where necessary, their affiliated institutions. JSLA does not adjudicate the intellectual merit of competing claims. Where a dispute is raised, the editorial office will suspend processing of the manuscript, or in the case of published work will consider an Expression of Concern, until the parties provide a signed statement of resolution or a determination from the responsible institutional authority. The journal follows the guidance and flowcharts published by the Committee on Publication Ethics in handling such cases, and reserves the right to reject a submission, publish a correction, or retract an article where a dispute cannot be resolved or where misconduct is established.

10. Declaration on Submission

By submitting to JSLA, the corresponding author affirms on behalf of all authors that the criteria in this policy have been met, that the Contributor Roles Statement is accurate and complete, that the manuscript is original and not under consideration elsewhere, and that all authors accept public responsibility for the content of the work.

Enquiries: editor@linkjsla.com

This policy is reviewed annually by the Editorial Board and forms part of the uniform policy framework applied across all journals published by Link Medical Interface.