Authorship Criteria

Authorship should be determined based on substantive intellectual involvement in the research rather than academic seniority, institutional status, or administrative authority.

1. Authorship Agreement Before Submission

To qualify for authorship, individuals should meet all of the following criteria:

Make substantial contributions to the conception or design of the research, or to the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of research data.
Participate in drafting the manuscript or critically reviewing its important intellectual content.
Review and approve the final version of the manuscript intended for publication.
Agree to be accountable for their contributions and cooperate in resolving questions concerning the accuracy or integrity of the research.

In communication studies, qualifying contributions may include developing theoretical frameworks, designing research methodologies, conducting substantive media or discourse analysis, interpreting interview or survey findings, analyzing digital communication phenomena, or contributing significantly to the academic argumentation and interpretation of research results.

The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that:

All individuals who meet the authorship criteria are appropriately included in the manuscript.
No eligible contributor is improperly excluded from authorship.
All listed authors have made substantial scholarly contributions and understand their individual responsibilities.
All authors have reviewed and approved the manuscript before its submission.
All authors have agreed to the order in which their names appear in the manuscript.
All authors approve the final version intended for publication.
All authors are informed of and comply with the journal's publication ethics and research integrity policies.
All relevant authorship information, institutional affiliations, and contributor declarations are accurate and complete.

The corresponding author serves as the primary contact between the authors and the editorial office throughout manuscript submission, peer review, revision, and publication.

All authors share responsibility for maintaining the integrity of the published research and should be able to identify the contributions of their co-authors.

2. Acknowledgment of Contributions

Individuals who contribute to the research or manuscript preparation but do not meet the criteria for authorship should be appropriately recognized in the acknowledgment section, subject to their permission.

Acknowledgments provide an opportunity to recognize valuable academic, technical, administrative, or professional assistance without inaccurately assigning authorship.

Contributions that may generally warrant acknowledgment rather than authorship include:

Administrative Assistance: Providing administrative coordination, institutional documentation, scheduling, or logistical support without substantial intellectual involvement.
General Academic Supervision: Offering routine academic guidance, institutional oversight, or supervisory support without making a qualifying contribution to the research or manuscript.
Technical and Language Support: Providing proofreading, translation, language editing, transcription, formatting, or technical assistance without substantive intellectual contributions.
Data Collection Assistance: Assisting with the distribution of questionnaires, transcription of interviews, documentation of observations, or collection of media materials without substantial involvement in research design, analysis, or interpretation.
Financial or Institutional Support: Providing research funding, facilities, access to institutional resources, or sponsorship without contributing sufficiently to qualify for authorship.
Research Access and Coordination: Facilitating access to media organizations, communication agencies, interview participants, community groups, digital platforms, or research locations without a substantial scholarly contribution.

Individuals who provide technical or administrative assistance should not automatically be included as authors. However, contributors who are initially involved in supporting activities may qualify for authorship if they also fulfill the established authorship criteria through substantive intellectual participation. Authors must obtain appropriate permission before naming individuals in the acknowledgment section, particularly when acknowledgment could imply endorsement of the research findings.

3. Contribution Statements

We require authors to provide an author contribution statement that transparently identifies the specific scholarly responsibilities and contributions of each listed author.

The journal adopts the principles of the Contributor Roles Taxonomy (CRediT) to promote accountability, transparency, and appropriate recognition of individual contributions throughout the research process.

The CRediT taxonomy includes the following contributor roles:

Conceptualization: Developing the research ideas, objectives, theoretical perspectives, conceptual frameworks, or overarching research questions.
Methodology: Designing or developing research methods, including qualitative, quantitative, mixed-methods, media analysis, discourse analysis, and other approaches relevant to communication studies.
Software: Developing, implementing, or applying research software, analytical tools, coding applications, or digital systems required for conducting the research.
Validation: Verifying the reliability, consistency, accuracy, or reproducibility of research findings, analytical procedures, or methodological approaches.
Formal Analysis: Applying statistical, qualitative, computational, interpretative, or other systematic analytical techniques to research data.
Investigation: Conducting research activities, including interviews, surveys, observations, fieldwork, media monitoring, digital ethnography, or other empirical investigations.
Resources: Providing research materials, datasets, communication archives, media documents, research instruments, or other necessary resources.
Data Curation: Organizing, managing, documenting, validating, and maintaining research data, including interview transcripts, survey responses, media content, and digital communication datasets.
Writing – Original Draft: Preparing the initial manuscript, including the development of scholarly arguments, theoretical discussions, research findings, and interpretations.
Writing – Review & Editing: Critically reviewing, revising, and improving the manuscript's intellectual content, academic structure, analytical arguments, or scholarly presentation.
Visualization: Preparing figures, diagrams, conceptual models, statistical visualizations, communication networks, media representations, or other visual elements supporting the research.
Supervision: Providing intellectual guidance, academic oversight, and scholarly leadership during the research process.
Project Administration: Coordinating and managing the planning, implementation, scheduling, or organizational activities associated with the research project.
Funding Acquisition: Obtaining financial support, research grants, sponsorship, or other funding resources necessary for conducting the study.

Authors may be assigned multiple contributor roles, and a particular role may be shared by more than one author when appropriate. Contribution statements must accurately represent the work performed by each author and should not be used to justify inappropriate authorship assignments.

Example of an Author Contribution Statement:

"Author Contributions: Author A: Conceptualization, Methodology, Investigation, Writing – Original Draft. Author B: Formal Analysis, Data Curation, Visualization, Writing – Review & Editing. Author C: Supervision, Validation, Project Administration, Writing – Review & Editing. All authors have read and approved the final version of the manuscript."

The CRediT taxonomy is intended to describe individual contributions and does not independently determine whether a contributor qualifies for authorship.

4. Changes to Authorship

Changes to the authorship list after manuscript submission should be exceptional and must be supported by a clear and reasonable justification. Proposed authorship changes may include the addition or removal of an author, changes to author order, changes to the corresponding author, or corrections to author identification information. Any request to modify authorship must be communicated to the editorial office of Metamorfosa.

Requests for authorship changes should include:

A clear explanation of the reason for the proposed change.
The original and proposed authorship lists, where applicable.
A description of the scholarly contribution of any author being added or removed.
Written agreement from all listed authors, including individuals being added or removed, where applicable.
Confirmation that the proposed authorship arrangement complies with the journal's authorship criteria and publication ethics policies.

The editorial team may request additional documentation or clarification before considering an authorship modification. Requests made after manuscript acceptance or publication may require additional editorial assessment to protect the integrity and accuracy of the scholarly record. If an authorship correction is approved after publication, the journal may issue an appropriate correction notice in accordance with its Correction and Retraction Policy. The journal reserves the right to decline proposed authorship changes that lack adequate justification, appropriate author agreement, or compliance with established ethical standards.

5. Authorship Disputes

Authors are encouraged to resolve authorship disagreements collaboratively, transparently, and in accordance with established academic integrity principles before submitting their manuscripts. When an authorship dispute is reported to the journal, the editorial team may request relevant explanations, contribution statements, written agreements, or supporting documentation from the individuals involved. The journal will seek to assess the implications of the dispute for the integrity of the submitted or published manuscript while maintaining fairness, confidentiality, and appropriate editorial independence. However, disputes involving institutional authority, employment relationships, intellectual property ownership, or conflicting claims regarding individual research contributions may require formal examination beyond the journal's editorial responsibilities.

In such circumstances, Metamorfosa may refer the matter to the relevant research institution, academic authority, or other appropriate body for independent investigation or resolution. The journal may suspend editorial consideration of an affected manuscript when an unresolved authorship dispute raises substantial concerns regarding the legitimacy of the submission. Editorial action will be based on available evidence, relevant institutional findings where appropriate, and the journal's publication ethics policies. The journal does not assume responsibility for independently adjudicating complex institutional or employment-related authorship disputes.