Abstract

Lai Meng Looi

As authorship often carries important academic, social and even financial advantage, contentions over authorship have continually plagued the publication scene. The Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts submitted to Biomedical Journals define an “author” as someone who has made substantive intellectual contributions to the published study. There is general agreement that authors should have contributed to the concept, design and conduct of the study, the drafting of the manuscript and be able to take public responsibility for the published work, and the order of citation of authors should be a joint decision of co-authors. Apart from criteria for authorship, editorial policies place other responsibilities on authors upon submission of the manuscript. These include compliance with the ethical and technical requirements of the Journal. It is implicit that the submitted work should be based on scientifically sound, ethically conducted research and the manuscript should accurately reflect the design and conduct of the study. Potential conflicts of interest should be declared and rightful acknowledgements made. The editor expects authors to pay careful attention to instructions on manuscript preparation and subsequent timely and appropriate response to all issues raised by reviewers. Mutual respect between author and editor and due regard for each others’ responsibilities go a long way towards the realization of a successful publication.