Authorship Criteria

Madago Nursing Journal (MNJ) is committed to transparency, accountability, and integrity in scholarly authorship. Authorship should accurately recognize the intellectual contributions of individuals involved in nursing research, evidence synthesis, case studies, and manuscript preparation.

In accordance with the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), every listed author must satisfy all four of the following criteria:

1. Substantial Contributions: Make a substantial contribution to the conception or design of the work, or to the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data.

2. Manuscript Preparation: Draft the manuscript or critically review it for important intellectual content.

3. Final Approval: Approve the final version to be published.

4. Accountability and Integrity: Accept accountability for the work as a whole and help ensure that concerns about the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

All individuals who meet all four criteria should be included as authors. Contributors who satisfy the first criterion should have the opportunity to participate in manuscript drafting or critical review and final approval.

Funding acquisition, institutional position, general supervision, administrative support, or language editing alone does not qualify an individual for authorship. Gift, honorary, guest, and ghost authorship are unacceptable.

Author Contributions

All submissions must include an Author Contributions statement describing each author’s specific contributions. MNJ encourages the use of the Contributor Roles Taxonomy (CRediT), including conceptualization, methodology, investigation, data curation, formal analysis, validation, visualization, writing—original draft, writing—review and editing, supervision, project administration, and funding acquisition, as applicable.

Contribution statements must accurately reflect the work performed and be approved by all authors. CRediT roles describe contributions but do not replace the four authorship criteria.

Corresponding Author

The corresponding author is the primary contact between the authors and the editorial office during submission, peer review, revision, and publication.

The corresponding author must ensure that all co-authors have agreed to the author list and order, approved the submitted manuscript, and approved the final version for publication. The corresponding author also coordinates the submission of author contribution statements, ethical declarations, funding information, conflict-of-interest disclosures, and other required documentation.

The corresponding author should respond promptly to editorial inquiries and remain available after publication to coordinate responses to questions, requests for supporting information, or necessary corrections.

Changes in Authorship

The author list and order should be agreed upon before submission. Any subsequent addition, removal, or rearrangement of authors requires a written explanation and written agreement from all listed authors, including any individual being added or removed.

Requests must be submitted by the corresponding author and are subject to editorial review and approval. Changes must reflect genuine contributions and compliance with the authorship criteria.

After publication, approved authorship changes will be documented through an appropriate correction notice.

Authorship Disputes

Authors are responsible for resolving disagreements about authorship and author order. Where a dispute cannot be resolved, the journal may suspend manuscript processing and refer the matter to the relevant institution or institutions for investigation.

The Editorial Board does not adjudicate competing claims of contribution but may act on institutional findings and applicable publication ethics guidance.

Acknowledgments

Individuals who contributed to the work but do not meet all four authorship criteria should be recognized in the Acknowledgments section, with their written permission.

Examples include technical assistance, administrative support, language editing, and other contributions that do not independently qualify for authorship. The nature of each contribution should be specified.

Acknowledgment must not imply endorsement without consent or be used to exclude an individual who meets the authorship criteria.

Use of Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence (AI) tools, including generative AI systems, cannot be listed as authors or co-authors because they cannot approve publication, accept accountability, or assume responsibility for scholarly work.

Authors must disclose the use of generative AI or AI-assisted technologies in preparing the submitted work. The disclosure should identify the tool and describe its purpose and extent of use. Writing assistance should be reported in a dedicated AI disclosure statement or the Acknowledgments section. AI used as part of the research methodology should be described in the Methods section with sufficient detail to support evaluation and reproducibility.

All AI-assisted content must undergo careful human review. Authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, integrity, and appropriate attribution of the manuscript. References, factual statements, analyses, and other outputs must be independently verified.

AI tools must not be used to fabricate or falsify data, create misleading findings, or produce unverified citations. Identifiable patient information, confidential research data, and unpublished third-party materials must not be entered into AI systems without appropriate authorization and safeguards.

Madago Nursing Journal reserves the right to request clarification or supporting documentation concerning authorship, contribution statements, and AI use, and to take appropriate editorial action when ethical concerns arise.