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node-case view-mode-full "> <div class="node-case__left node-case__fields"> <div class="field field--short"> <div class="field-label">Case number:</div> <div class="field-item">24-24</div> </div> </div> <div class="node-case__body"> <div class="sidebar sidebar--offset"> <div class="sidebar__body"> <div class="node-case__fields"> <div class="field field-name-field-anonymised-text-of-the-ca field-type-text-long field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Case text (Anonymised): </div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>If there are authors with equal contributions (including co-first and co-last authors) in an article, then according to the Contributor Role Taxonomy (CRediT), do their roles need to be consistent in the "Author Contributions" section?<br /> </p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-advice field-type-text-long field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Advice: </div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><em>Advice on this case is from a small number of COPE Council Members. Most cases on the COPE website are presented to the <a href="https://publicationethics.org/copeforum">COPE Forum</a> where advice is offered by a wider group of COPE Members and COPE Council Members. Advice on individual cases is not formal COPE guidance.</em></p> <p>While it’s possible that more than one author has the same types and amounts of contributions according to CRediT, and you can even signify this with an “equal” tag, different contribution types and amounts are also possible. For example, a medical doctor and a molecular biologist could have equal but different contributions to a collaboration describing a new disease - one from the clinical side, and the other from the laboratory.</p> <p>It’s up to the authors to agree among themselves how to work out author order and the overall amount and importance of each author’s contribution. Ultimately, editors have to trust the authors and that they all approve of equal contributions. The editor’s role is simply to confirm that each author qualitatively fulfils the requirements for authorship by comparing CRediT roles with the journal’s criteria. </p> <p>However, the use of equal contributions should be defined in the journal guidelines as well as in the article. For example, does the journal allow equal contributorship to mean that all authors contributed equally, or is it limited to 2 or 3 maximum joint first/lead authors? What does it really mean to have joint senior or final position authors, and can they coexist with joint first authors? Institutional pressures and incentives may contribute to the lack of clarity about equal contributorship and author order (explaining the more prevalent use of co-corresponding authors too).</p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-resolution field-type-list-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Resolution: </div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Case Closed</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-9 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Year: </div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/4478">2024</a></div></div></div><div class="field field--classifications field--short"><div class="field-label">Core practices:</div><div class="item-list"><ul><li class="first last"><a href="/authorship" title="View all "Authorship and contributorship" content">Authorship and contributorship</a></li> </ul></div></div> </div> <aside class="sidebar__aside"> <div class="sidebar__aside__col"> <div class="sidebar__aside__inner"> <div class="contextual-links-region"><h3>COPE Forum</h3><div class="entity entity-bean bean-editable"> <div > <div class="field field-name-field-block-text field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>COPE Members:<br /> do you have a publication ethics case and need help with next steps?<br /> <a href="https://publicationethics.org/copeforum">Submit your case</a></p> <p>Registration is now open for the 9 December Forum where new cases are discussed. 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