Authorship Criteria

Islamic Accounting Journal (IAJ) requires that every person listed as an author has made a genuine and substantial intellectual contribution to the work. Authorship carries both credit and responsibility for the published article. IAJ follows the authorship criteria of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) and the guidance of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

1. Who Qualifies as an Author

An individual should be listed as an author only if he or she meets all four of the following criteria:

  1. Made a substantial contribution to the conception or design of the study, or to the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data;
  2. Drafted the manuscript or revised it critically for important intellectual content;
  3. Approved the final version of the manuscript to be published; and
  4. Agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work, ensuring that questions related to its accuracy or integrity are properly investigated and resolved.

Individuals who contributed only by providing funding, general supervision, language editing, technical assistance, or data collection do not qualify as authors. Their contribution should be recognised in the Acknowledgements section.

2. Unacceptable Authorship Practices

IAJ does not accept the following practices:

  • Ghost authorship: omitting a person who meets the authorship criteria.
  • Gift or guest authorship: listing a person who does not meet the authorship criteria, for example because of seniority or position.
  • Purchased or traded authorship: selling, buying, or exchanging authorship positions.

Such practices are treated as research misconduct and will be handled in accordance with the IAJ Allegation of Research Misconduct policy.

3. Responsibilities of the Corresponding Author

The corresponding author acts on behalf of all co-authors and is responsible for:

  • Communicating with the journal from submission through peer review to publication;
  • Ensuring that all eligible co-authors are included and that all of them have read and approved the manuscript and its submission to IAJ;
  • Ensuring that the names, order, affiliations, email addresses, and ORCID iDs of all authors are complete and correct; and
  • Completing the administrative requirements of the journal, including the Copyright Transfer Agreement.

4. Author Contribution Statement

Manuscripts with more than one author must include an author contribution statement describing the role of each author. IAJ recommends the CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy), for example: Conceptualization, Methodology, Formal analysis, Data curation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing, and Supervision.

5. Order of Authors

The order of authors should be agreed upon jointly by all co-authors before submission. The journal does not decide or arbitrate the order of authors.

6. Changes in Authorship

Any addition, removal, or rearrangement of authors is permitted only before the manuscript is accepted. Requests must be sent to the Editor-in-Chief by the corresponding author, stating the reason for the change, and accompanied by written confirmation from all authors, including those being added or removed. Changes after publication are handled as a correction in accordance with the IAJ Retraction Policy.

7. Artificial Intelligence and Authorship

Artificial intelligence (AI) tools, including large language models, cannot be listed as authors because they cannot take responsibility for the work. Any use of AI tools in preparing the manuscript must be disclosed, and the authors remain fully responsible for the content. Further details are provided in the IAJ AI Usage Policy.

8. Authorship Disputes

Authorship disputes should first be resolved among the authors or through their institutions. Where necessary, the editor will follow the COPE Flowcharts and may contact the authors' institutions. Publication of the manuscript may be suspended until the dispute is resolved.