Authorship and Contributor Policy

Proceedings (Collection of Papers) published by SPS-DRM and IDR expect authorship to reflect real scholarly contributions and to be assigned transparently and fairly. Authorship must not be granted on the basis of status, seniority, institutional position, honorary roles, or administrative involvement alone.

Criteria for Authorship

To be listed as an author, each author must meet all of the following requirements:

  1. Substantive intellectual contribution to the work (e.g., study conception/design; data collection; data analysis; interpretation of results);

  2. Active participation in manuscript development, through drafting key sections and/or providing critical revisions that improve the intellectual content;

  3. Final approval of the version to be published;

  4. Responsibility and accountability for the integrity of the work, including cooperation in investigating and resolving any questions related to accuracy, ethics, or research integrity.

Individuals who do not meet these criteria must not be listed as authors and should be recognized in an Acknowledgements section (e.g., technical support, proofreading/language editing, administrative assistance, general supervision without intellectual input). Where appropriate, acknowledgements should be included with the contributor’s consent.

Contributor Roles (CRediT)

SPS-DRM/IDR Proceedings encourage an Author Contributions statement using standardized CRediT roles, such as:
Conceptualization; Methodology; Data Curation; Formal Analysis; Investigation; Resources; Writing – Original Draft; Writing – Review & Editing; Visualization; Supervision; Project Administration; Funding Acquisition.
This increases transparency and helps readers understand each author’s role in the research.

Unacceptable Authorship Practices

Proceedings do not accept:

  • Guest/Gift authorship (including individuals who did not contribute meaningfully);

  • Ghost authorship (excluding individuals who did contribute substantially).

Any attempt to misrepresent authorship may result in editorial action, including (as appropriate): suspension of processing until clarification, rejection, publication of a correction, or retraction in accordance with publication-ethics principles.

Changes to Authorship (Additions, Removals, Order)

Any change to the author list (adding/removing authors or changing author order) must:

  • be requested by the corresponding author with a clear justification; and

  • be confirmed in writing by all authors, including any author being added or removed.

The editorial team may pause processing until the matter is resolved and may request evidence that all authors meet the authorship conditions.

Role of the Corresponding Author

The corresponding author is the main contact with the Proceedings editorial office and is responsible for:

  • ensuring all co-authors have reviewed and approved the manuscript and major revisions;

  • keeping co-authors informed of editorial correspondence and decisions;

  • ensuring authorship details (names, affiliations, emails, ORCID where available) are accurate;

  • coordinating a consolidated response to reviewer/editor comments when peer review is applied.