All authors listed on submissions to Veterinary Evidence must meet the following four criteria recommended by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE):
More information can be accessed on the ICMJE website.
All Veterinary Evidence submission templates outline these criteria. It is the corresponding authors responsibility to confirm authorship and the author order prior to submission.
Where all criteria are not met, contributors should be acknowledged in an acknowledgements section at the end of the main text.
Acknowledgements section
The purpose of this section is to acknowledge those who have contributed to the research and/or writing of the paper but who do not qualify as an author. See Authorship criteria above. This may include those who provided intellectual assistance, technical aid (including writing and editing support), or contributed special equipment or materials.
As stated in the ICMJE guidelines: "All others who contributed to the work who are not authors should be named in the Acknowledgments, and what they did should be described." All individuals listed in the acknowledgment section should also be made aware of their inclusion.
It is essential to keep the information presented in the acknowledgment section brief and focus only on individuals directly involved in the research and/or writing of the paper.
Adding, removing or changing the author order
The editorial office must be made aware of any changes to the author list prior to acceptance. The corresponding author must contact the editorial office and state why the change is taking place and provide written confirmation from all authors, including the author(s) being added/removed, that they agree with the change. The corresponding author must also confirm that all authors meet the four ICMJE criteria detailed above. Changes to authorship cannot be made after acceptance of a manuscript.
Disputes
In the case of author disputes Veterinary Evidence will follow guidance provided by the Committee of Publication Ethics (COPE) and refer the authors to their institution in order for the institution to reach a resolution.