Authorship and Contributorship Policy

The Journal of Leadership in Sport and Management (JLSM) considers authorship both a form of scholarly credit and a responsibility for the integrity of published work.

All individuals listed as authors must have made a substantial intellectual contribution to the work and must be able to take appropriate responsibility for its content. Individuals who contributed to the work but do not meet the criteria for authorship should be acknowledged appropriately.

Criteria for Authorship

JLSM expects authorship to reflect the principles established by internationally recognised standards for responsible scholarly publishing.

An author should normally have made substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data; or another substantive intellectual component of the research.

In addition, all authors should:

participate in drafting the manuscript or critically revising it for important intellectual content;
approve the version submitted for publication and the final version to be published;
agree to be accountable for their own contributions; and
cooperate appropriately in resolving questions concerning the accuracy or integrity of the work.

Acquisition of funding, general supervision, administrative support, data collection alone, or provision of access to participants does not automatically justify authorship.

CRediT Contributor Roles

JLSM supports the Contributor Roles Taxonomy (CRediT) as a transparent method of describing individual contributions to research.

Where requested by the journal, authors should provide a contribution statement identifying relevant roles, such as conceptualization, methodology, formal analysis, investigation, data curation, writing, visualization, supervision, project administration, or funding acquisition.

CRediT roles describe contributions but do not independently determine whether an individual qualifies for authorship.

Corresponding Author

The corresponding author acts as the principal point of contact between the journal and the author group during submission, peer review, publication, and, where necessary, post-publication correspondence.

The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that all listed authors have approved the submission, that the authorship information is accurate, and that relevant declarations and disclosures have been provided.

This role does not imply greater ownership of or responsibility for the research than that of the other authors.

Author Order

The order of authors should be determined collectively by the authors according to disciplinary conventions and their respective contributions.

JLSM does not determine author order and will not normally adjudicate disputes regarding the relative contribution of authors.

Changes in Authorship

Requests to add, remove, or reorder authors after initial submission must be justified.

The journal may require written agreement from all affected authors before approving a change.

Changes requested after acceptance will be permitted only when adequately justified and may delay publication.

Requests to change authorship after publication will be considered only in exceptional circumstances and, where approved, may require a formal correction to the published record.

JLSM will not normally resolve authorship disputes itself. Where agreement cannot be reached, the journal may refer the matter to the authors’ institution or another appropriate body.

Gift, Guest and Honorary Authorship

Individuals must not be listed as authors solely because of their seniority, institutional position, professional relationship, reputation, provision of funding, or general supervision.

Gift, guest, and honorary authorship are unacceptable.

Ghost Authorship

Individuals who made contributions that would reasonably qualify them for authorship must not be deliberately omitted from the author list.

Professional writers, analysts, commercial organisations, or other contributors who substantially participated in preparing the work should be appropriately identified according to the nature of their contribution.

Ghost authorship is unacceptable.

Acknowledgements

Contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship may be recognised in an Acknowledgements section.

Authors are responsible for obtaining permission from individuals who are named in acknowledgements when such identification could reasonably imply their endorsement of the work.

Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence systems and AI-assisted technologies cannot qualify as authors because they cannot assume responsibility for the accuracy, integrity, or ethical conduct of scholarly work.

Use of AI-assisted technologies is governed separately by the journal’s Artificial Intelligence and AI-Assisted Technologies Policy.

Authorship Disputes and Misrepresentation

If JLSM receives credible information suggesting inappropriate authorship, omitted contributors, fabricated authorship, or another serious authorship problem, the journal may request explanations and supporting documentation.

Where necessary, JLSM may seek clarification from relevant institutions or other competent bodies and may take appropriate editorial or post-publication action.