Authorship Policy

Civil Engineering Science and Technology (CEST) is committed to promoting transparency, accountability, and integrity in scholarly authorship. The journal adopts the Contributor Roles Taxonomy (CRediT) to recognize and describe each author's individual contribution to the submitted work.

Authorship should accurately reflect each contributor's intellectual involvement in the research and manuscript preparation. All listed authors are expected to have made substantial scholarly contributions and share responsibility for the integrity of the published work.

CRediT Contributor Roles

 

Authors are encouraged to identify their contributions using one or more of the following CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy) roles:

  • Conceptualization – Development of the research idea, objectives, and overall study design.
  • Methodology – Design of research methods, models, or experimental procedures.
  • Software – Development or implementation of software, programming, algorithms, or computational tools.
  • Validation – Verification of research findings, experiments, or analytical procedures.
  • Formal Analysis – Statistical analysis, mathematical modeling, or interpretation of research data.
  • Investigation – Conducting experiments, fieldwork, surveys, or data collection.
  • Resources – Provision of materials, laboratory facilities, equipment, datasets, or other research resources.
  • Data Curation – Data management, annotation, cleaning, preservation, and documentation.
  • Writing – Original Draft – Preparation of the initial manuscript draft.
  • Writing – Review & Editing – Critical revision, editing, and improvement of the manuscript.
  • Visualization – Preparation of figures, graphical abstracts, illustrations, maps, or visual representations.
  • Supervision – Scientific leadership, oversight, and mentorship throughout the research.
  • Project Administration – Coordination and management of the research project.
  • Funding Acquisition – Securing financial support for the research.

Authors should ensure that the contribution statement accurately reflects the actual work performed by each contributor.

Authorship Criteria

Individuals listed as authors should have made substantial intellectual contributions to the research and should collectively be able to take public responsibility for the published work.

Each author is expected to:

  • Participate meaningfully in the research and/or manuscript preparation.
  • Review and approve the final version of the manuscript before submission.
  • Agree to its submission to CEST.
  • Accept responsibility for the accuracy, integrity, and originality of the published work.

Individuals who contributed only administrative support, language editing, proofreading, funding administration, or general supervision without significant intellectual contribution should not be listed as authors. Such contributions may instead be acknowledged in the Acknowledgements section.

Corresponding Author

The Corresponding Author serves as the primary contact between the authors and the editorial office throughout the submission, peer review, production, and publication processes.

The Corresponding Author is responsible for:

  • Ensuring that all authors meet the journal's authorship requirements.
  • Obtaining approval of the final manuscript from all co-authors.
  • Managing communication with the editorial office.
  • Coordinating revisions and responses to reviewers.
  • Ensuring that all required declarations are complete and accurate.
  • Verifying that the reported CRediT contributions are correct.

Changes in Authorship

Requests to add, remove, or reorder authors after manuscript submission will only be considered under exceptional circumstances.

Any authorship change must include:

  • A written explanation for the requested change.
  • Written agreement from all authors, including any author being added or removed.
  • Approval from the Editor-in-Chief.

After publication, changes to authorship will only be made through an official correction when justified by compelling evidence.

Authorship Misconduct

The following practices are considered unethical and are prohibited:

  • Guest authorship.
  • Gift authorship.
  • Honorary authorship.
  • Ghost authorship.
  • Purchased authorship.
  • Misrepresentation of individual contributions.
  • Unauthorized addition or removal of authors.

If authorship misconduct is confirmed, the journal may reject the manuscript, retract the published article, notify the authors' affiliated institutions, or take other actions consistent with the journal's Publication Ethics and COPE recommendations.

Artificial Intelligence and Authorship

Artificial intelligence systems, including but not limited to ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Copilot, DeepSeek, or similar technologies, cannot be listed as authors or co-authors.

AI systems do not satisfy internationally recognized authorship criteria because they cannot:

  • Take responsibility for published work.
  • Approve the final manuscript.
  • Respond to editorial inquiries.
  • Disclose conflicts of interest.
  • Accept legal or ethical accountability.

Any use of AI-assisted technologies must comply with the journal's Artificial Intelligence (AI) Policy.

Contributor Statement

CEST requires authors to include a CRediT Author Contribution Statement at the end of every accepted manuscript.

An example is provided below.

CRediT Author Statement
John Doe: Conceptualization, Methodology, Formal Analysis, Writing – Original Draft.
Jane Smith: Investigation, Data Curation, Visualization.
Michael Brown: Supervision, Writing – Review & Editing, Funding Acquisition.

The Editorial Office may request clarification whenever author contributions appear inconsistent with the submitted manuscript.

Responsibility and Accountability

All authors share collective responsibility for the integrity of the research and agree that questions related to the accuracy or ethical conduct of any part of the work will be appropriately investigated and resolved. Submission to CEST constitutes confirmation that all authors have read, approved, and agreed to comply with this Authorship Policy.

Mandatory Author Contribution Form

To ensure transparency and accountability in scholarly publishing, CEST requires all submitting authors to complete and upload a CRediT Author Contribution Form during the initial manuscript submission.

The form must clearly identify the contribution(s) of each listed author using the Contributor Roles Taxonomy (CRediT).

Authors are encouraged to select one or more applicable roles for each contributor, including but not limited to:

  • Conceptualization
  • Methodology
  • Software
  • Validation
  • Formal Analysis
  • Investigation
  • Resources
  • Data Curation
  • Writing – Original Draft
  • Writing – Review & Editing
  • Visualization
  • Supervision
  • Project Administration
  • Funding Acquisition

The Editorial Office may request clarification whenever the reported contributions appear inconsistent with the submitted manuscript or authorship order.

Submission of an incomplete or inaccurate contribution statement may delay the editorial process.

Author Declaration

In addition to the CRediT Author Contribution Form, the Corresponding Author is required to submit an Author Declaration Form confirming that:

  • All listed authors satisfy the journal's authorship criteria.
  • All authors have reviewed and approved the submitted manuscript.
  • All authors agree to its submission to CEST.
  • The manuscript is original and has not been published or submitted elsewhere.
  • All sources have been properly acknowledged.
  • Any use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been disclosed in accordance with the journal's AI Policy.
  • Any potential conflicts of interest have been fully disclosed.
  • The reported CRediT author contributions accurately represent each author's actual contribution.

The Corresponding Author accepts responsibility for the accuracy of all submitted declarations on behalf of every co-author.

Authorship Confirmation During Production

Before publication, the final galley proof is distributed to the Corresponding Author for approval.

By approving the final proof, the Corresponding Author confirms on behalf of all co-authors that:

  • The author list is complete and accurate.
  • The order of authors has been agreed upon by all contributors.
  • The CRediT Author Contribution Statement is correct.
  • No further authorship changes are requested.

Requests to modify authorship after final proof approval will only be considered under exceptional circumstances and may require postponement of publication or the issuance of a formal correction after publication.