1. Authorship Criteria & Acknowledgements

Core Requirements: To qualify as an author, an individual must fulfill all four of the following criteria:

1. Making a substantive contribution to the conception or design of the research, or to the acquisition, analysis, and interpretation of the data (e.g., fieldwork, textual analysis, or instrument development).
2. Drafting the manuscript or critically revising it for significant intellectual content.
3. Providing explicit approval of the final version slated for publication.
4. Assuming full accountability for all aspects of the work, ensuring that any concerns regarding accuracy or integrity are thoroughly investigated and resolved.

Exclusions: Activities such as securing funding, providing general supervision, offering administrative or logistical support, collecting basic data (e.g., enumerators), or performing language editing do not independently qualify an individual for authorship. Such contributors should be formally recognized in the Acknowledgements section, provided they give their permission.

2. Unacceptable Authorship Practices

The following practices constitute research misconduct and are strictly forbidden:

• Gift/Honorary Authorship: Adding individuals who do not meet the criteria, often based on seniority or to artificially enhance publication prospects.
• Guest Authorship: Including a prominent academic figure solely to lend credibility to the manuscript.
• Ghost Authorship: Omitting individuals who made substantial intellectual contributions, such as professional writers.
• Purchased/Traded Authorship: Buying, selling, or bartering authorship positions, including illicit transactions through paper mills.
• Coercive Authorship: Demanding an authorship position as a prerequisite for access, supervision, or employment.

3. Author Order and CRediT Reporting

Sequence and Roles: The sequence of authors must be collectively agreed upon prior to submission. The designated corresponding author serves as the primary liaison, ensuring all co-authors approve submissions/revisions and remain informed throughout the publication lifecycle. For manuscripts derived from student theses, the student should typically be listed as the primary author; supervisors are included only if they fulfill all four authorship criteria.

CRediT Taxonomy: All multi-authored manuscripts must feature a detailed Author Contributions statement on the title page, utilizing the standardized CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy). Crucially, roles such as Supervision or Funding Acquisition are insufficient for authorship on their own; every author must demonstrably contribute to the writing or critical editing of the manuscript.

4. Metadata, Modifications, and Disputes

Information Requirements: Authors must consistently provide their full names, active institutional email addresses, ORCID iDs, and the institutional affiliation held when the research was conducted. This metadata must strictly match the OJS system entries and appear exclusively on the title page to preserve double-blind anonymity.

Modifying Authorship: Any requests to alter the author list before acceptance must be emailed to the editor, complete with robust justification, updated CRediT roles, and explicit written consent from all involved parties. Post-acceptance changes are exceptionally rare, and post-publication changes necessitate a formal published corrigendum. Name changes prompted by personal reasons (e.g., marriage, gender transition) may be executed discreetly without public notice.

Disputes and Responsibilities: Authors are expected to resolve disputes internally. The journal refrains from adjudicating intellectual merit; unresolved conflicts will halt the publication process and be formally referred to the authors' affiliated institutions for investigation. Post-publication, all authors share a collective responsibility to cooperate with any subsequent investigations or corrections. Deceased authors who met all criteria may remain credited, with the corresponding author assuming responsibility for their declarations.