How to write and publish a scientific paper - Barbara Gastel, Robert A. Day 2022

Specifying contributions
How to list the authors and addresses
Preparing the text

Some journals require a list of which author or authors did what—for example, who designed the research, who gathered the data, who analyzed the data, and who wrote the paper. Some journals publish this list of contributors with the paper. Others just keep it for their own information. Sometimes there are contributors who are not authors—for example, people who obtained some of the data but did not participate more broadly in the research or who provided technical or other guidance.

Listing contributions can have at least three advantages. First, it helps ensure that everyone listed as an author deserves to be listed—and that no one who ought to be listed has been left out. Second, it can help identify people to thank in the acknowledgments. And third, if the list is published, it can help readers determine which author to contact for which type of information.

Which contributions, though, should be identified? And how should those contributions be designated? A system called CRediT (for Contributor Roles Taxonomy) now exists. The CRediT website, at credit.niso.org, lists and defines 14 roles that authors and other contributors may have. Many publishers now require the use of these categories. Whether or not your paper is for a journal that uses CRediT, the list can be a useful resource.

(“Piled Higher and Deeper” by Jorge Cham. www.phdcomics.com)