Authorship Criteria

Manageable Journal is committed to maintaining transparency, integrity, accountability, and ethical standards in scholarly publishing. Authorship recognizes the intellectual contributions of individuals involved in scientific research and establishes their responsibility for the accuracy, originality, and integrity of published work.

The journal adopts the authorship principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), adapted to scholarly research in management, business, entrepreneurship, organizational studies, and related disciplines.

1. Who Qualifies as an Author

An individual may be recognized as an author only when they fulfill all four of the following criteria:

Substantial Contribution: Making a significant intellectual contribution to the conception or design of the research, or to the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of research data.
Manuscript Preparation: Drafting the manuscript or critically revising it for important intellectual content.
Final Approval: Reviewing and approving the final version of the manuscript before publication.
Accountability: Agreeing to take responsibility for all aspects of the research and ensuring that questions concerning the accuracy, validity, or integrity of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

All individuals designated as authors must meet these criteria, and all individuals who meet them should be included in the author list.

2. Contributors Who Do Not Meet the Authorship Criteria

Individuals who contribute to the research but do not fulfill all four authorship criteria should not be listed as authors. Their contributions should instead be acknowledged in the Acknowledgments section, with their permission where appropriate.

Examples of contributions that do not independently qualify for authorship include:

Providing financial support, research grants, or institutional resources.
Performing general supervision without substantial intellectual involvement.
Providing administrative or technical assistance.
Conducting routine data collection without contributing to the intellectual development of the research.
Providing proofreading, translation, formatting, or language editing services.
Offering general advice or organizational support.

Funding acquisition, institutional position, or general supervision alone does not justify authorship.

3. Responsibilities of the Corresponding Author

The corresponding author serves as the primary contact between the authors and the editorial office throughout the submission, peer-review, publication, and post-publication processes.

The corresponding author is responsible for:

Ensuring that all listed authors meet the journal's authorship criteria.
Obtaining approval of the manuscript from all co-authors before submission.
Confirming that no eligible contributor has been excluded from the author list.
Ensuring that all authors agree on the sequence of authorship.
Providing accurate author information, including names, affiliations, and email addresses.
Submitting required declarations concerning originality, competing interests, funding, research ethics, and copyright.
Communicating editorial decisions and manuscript revisions to all co-authors.
Coordinating responses to questions concerning the research after publication.

The corresponding author must remain accessible throughout the publication process and cooperate with the editorial office when clarification or supporting documentation is requested.

4. Order of Authors

The sequence of authors must be determined collectively by the authors before manuscript submission.

Authorship order should reflect the relative intellectual contributions of each author and any authorship conventions applicable to the research discipline.

Manageable Journal does not determine authorship order based solely on academic rank, institutional position, seniority, or financial contribution.

Any disagreement regarding authorship order should be resolved by the authors and, where appropriate, their institutions before submission.

5. Changes to Authorship

Any request to add, remove, or rearrange authors after manuscript submission must be submitted in writing to the editorial office.

The request must include:

A clear explanation of the reason for the proposed change.
Written agreement from all existing authors.
Written consent from any author being added or removed.
An updated statement of author contributions, where applicable.

Authorship changes are generally not permitted after manuscript acceptance unless exceptional circumstances justify the request and approval is granted by the Editor-in-Chief.

If an authorship dispute cannot be resolved, the editorial office may suspend the publication process and refer the matter to the relevant institutions in accordance with COPE guidance.

6. Inappropriate Authorship Practices

Manageable Journal strictly prohibits unethical authorship practices, including:

Ghost Authorship: Excluding an individual who has made a qualifying intellectual contribution to the research.
Gift or Honorary Authorship: Listing an individual as an author based on personal relationships, academic position, institutional authority, or other factors unrelated to qualifying contributions.
Guest Authorship: Including an individual primarily to increase the perceived credibility or publication prospects of the manuscript.
Authorship Manipulation: Adding, removing, or rearranging authors without their informed consent or for improper academic or professional advantage.

Suspected authorship misconduct will be investigated in accordance with relevant COPE guidance.

Depending on the nature and severity of the case, editorial actions may include manuscript rejection, suspension of editorial processing, publication of a correction, article retraction, or notification to the relevant institutions.

7. Artificial Intelligence and Authorship

Artificial intelligence (AI) tools, including generative AI systems and large language models, cannot be recognized as authors or co-authors.

AI systems cannot fulfill the requirements of authorship because they cannot independently assume responsibility for the accuracy, integrity, originality, and ethical implications of scholarly research.

Authors remain fully responsible for all content produced or assisted by AI tools.

The use of AI tools in manuscript preparation or research activities must be disclosed transparently when required by the journal's AI policy. Such disclosure should identify the tool used, its purpose, and the extent of its involvement, as appropriate.

Authors must verify the accuracy of AI-assisted content, including citations, references, data interpretations, and scientific statements.

The use of AI does not reduce or transfer the responsibilities of human authors.

8. Author Identity and Institutional Affiliation

All authors must provide accurate and verifiable information, including:

Full names as used in scholarly publications.
Institutional affiliations associated with the research.
Valid and active email addresses.
Country of institutional affiliation.
ORCID iD, where available.

Authors are strongly encouraged to register for and provide an Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCID iD) to support accurate author identification and scholarly attribution.

Misrepresentation of author identity, institutional affiliation, or academic credentials is considered a violation of publication ethics.

9. Author Contributions and Accountability

Manageable Journal encourages authors to provide a transparent statement describing their individual contributions to the research.

Where applicable, contributions may be described using the Contributor Roles Taxonomy (CRediT), including:

Conceptualization
Methodology
Software
Validation
Formal Analysis
Investigation
Resources
Data Curation
Writing – Original Draft
Writing – Review and Editing
Visualization
Supervision
Project Administration
Funding Acquisition

The contribution statement does not replace the authorship criteria. Each listed author must independently satisfy all four authorship requirements.

All authors share responsibility for maintaining the integrity of the published research and cooperating with legitimate post-publication inquiries.

10. Ethical Compliance and Policy Enforcement

Manageable Journal reserves the right to request supporting documentation concerning author contributions, authorship agreements, and related declarations when questions about authorship arise.

The editorial office will evaluate suspected violations fairly, confidentially, and in accordance with established publication ethics procedures.

Where authorship disputes involve competing claims that cannot be independently verified, the journal may request an investigation by the authors' affiliated institutions.

Editorial decisions will be guided by transparency, fairness, accountability, and the protection of the scholarly record.