Authorship Criteria

The Journal of Public and Business Accounting (JoPBA) is committed to upholding academic integrity, transparency in author contributions, and scientific accountability in all articles it publishes. This Authorship Policy establishes the criteria for authorship and ensures that every individual listed as an author has made a substantial intellectual contribution to the research and accepts responsibility for the integrity of the published work.

This policy applies to all manuscripts submitted to or published in JoPBA.

1. Authorship Criteria

An individual may be listed as an author of a manuscript submitted to JoPBA only if they meet all the following criteria:

1. Substantial contribution: Made a substantial contribution to the conception or design of the research, data collection, data analysis, interpretation of findings, or development of relevant research methods.

2. Manuscript preparation: Participated in drafting the manuscript or critically revising it for significant intellectual content.

3. Final approval: Reviewed and approved the final version of the manuscript for submission and publication.

4. Accountability: Agreed to take responsibility for their contributions and to cooperate in addressing questions concerning the accuracy, validity, or integrity of any part of the research.

Contributions limited to administrative support, funding acquisition, general supervision, proofreading, or technical editing do not automatically qualify an individual for authorship.

Individuals who have contributed to the research but do not meet all authorship criteria may be acknowledged in the Acknowledgments section, subject to their consent.

2. Author Contributions and Order of Authorship

All authors must agree on the order of authorship before the manuscript is submitted to JoPBA. The order should reflect the authors' agreed assessment of their respective contributions and comply with applicable academic and disciplinary conventions.

For manuscripts with multiple authors, JoPBA requires an Author Contributions Statement to promote transparency and accountability.

Authors are encouraged to use the Contributor Roles Taxonomy (CRediT), where appropriate, to describe individual contributions. Relevant roles may include:

• Conceptualization

• Methodology

• Investigation

• Data curation

• Formal analysis

• Validation

• Visualization

• Writing – original draft

• Writing – review and editing

• Project administration

• Funding acquisition

• Resources

• Supervision

Each author may be assigned multiple roles according to their actual contributions. The statement must accurately reflect the work performed by each contributor.

The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that:

1. All listed authors meet the journal's authorship criteria.

2. All authors have approved the manuscript and agreed to its submission to JoPBA.

3. All authors are informed of the editorial and peer-review process.

4. All authors have reviewed and approved the final version before publication.

5. The author order and contribution statements are accurate and agreed upon by all authors.

3. Changes to Authorship

Any addition, removal, or change in the order of authors after manuscript submission must be supported by a written justification and the written consent of all authors, including any individual being added or removed.

All authorship changes require approval from the Editor-in-Chief or an independent editor appointed when a conflict of interest exists. JoPBA may suspend the editorial process until the request has been reviewed and the relevant issues have been resolved.

Requests to change authorship after publication will be assessed based on the available evidence and the consent of the relevant parties. Where a change is justified, JoPBA may issue a formal correction in accordance with its publication ethics procedures and relevant guidance from the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

JoPBA will not approve authorship changes intended to misrepresent individual contributions or circumvent the journal's authorship requirements.

4. Prohibition of Unethical Authorship Practices

JoPBA does not permit gift authorship, guest authorship, honorary authorship, ghost authorship, or other practices that misrepresent an individual's contribution to scholarly work.

• Gift, guest, or honorary authorship refers to listing an individual as an author without sufficient contribution to meet the journal's authorship criteria.

• Ghost authorship refers to omitting an individual who has made a substantial contribution that warrants authorship, without an appropriate and transparent explanation.

All authors must ensure that authorship accurately reflects their intellectual and scholarly contributions. Institutional position, seniority, funding provision, supervisory responsibility, or personal relationships alone do not establish eligibility for authorship.

Generative AI systems and other AI tools cannot be listed as authors or co-authors because they cannot meet the journal's requirements for intellectual responsibility, final approval, and accountability for published work.

The use of AI in manuscript preparation or research must comply with the JoPBA AI Usage Policy. Any AI use requiring disclosure under that policy must be reported transparently. Authors remain responsible for the originality of the manuscript, the validity of the data, the accuracy of citations, the protection of research information, and the reliability of all scholarly statements.

5. Conflicts of Interest and Authorship Disputes

All authors must disclose relevant financial and non-financial conflicts of interest in accordance with the JoPBA Conflict of Interest Policy. If no relevant conflicts exist, authors must provide an appropriate declaration of non-conflict.

Authorship disputes will be handled objectively, fairly, and confidentially. The editorial team may request supporting documentation, statements of individual contributions, written consent, or other relevant evidence to assess the matter.

Where an authorship dispute cannot be resolved through the journal's editorial process, JoPBA may refer the matter to the relevant institution or institutions for investigation. The journal may suspend editorial processing or publication until the dispute has been adequately resolved.

JoPBA will not determine institutional employment, promotion, or disciplinary matters that fall outside its editorial authority. Its decisions will focus on authorship eligibility, the accuracy of the scholarly record, and compliance with publication ethics.

6. Compliance and Policy Review

All authors submitting manuscripts to or publishing articles in JoPBA must comply with this Authorship Policy.

Failure to comply may result in requests for clarification, correction of authorship information, suspension of the editorial process, manuscript rejection, or post-publication corrective action, depending on the nature and seriousness of the violation.

This policy will be reviewed periodically to remain consistent with developments in scholarly publishing, authorship standards, and recognized publication ethics guidance, including the principles of COPE.