Authorship Guidelines

This document provides all contributors to WAVES research activities with transparent definitions and procedures regarding standards for authorship for WAVES related publications. While the authorship guidelines are written with reference to the context of works submitted to peer-reviewed journals, the guidelines are intended to cover all works, including conference abstracts and proceedings and Knowledge Mobilization outputs.

Contact co-leads

• Daniel Fuller, University of Saskatchewan (Daniel.fuller@usask.ca)

• Sarah Kozey Keadle, Cal Poly (skeadle@calpoly.edu)

• Laura Brockletbank, Oxford University (Laura.Brocklebank@ndph.ox.ac.uk)

• Charles Matthews, US National Institutes of Health (charles.matthews2@nih.gov)

General terms of engagement

• In working together, we will operate a standard ‘no surprises’ rule of consortia. Furthermore, groups that are contributing to an ongoing WAVES work agree to not directly compete with the collaborative efforts and thus we ask that any potential conflicts be declared prior to participating.

• Open communication will be established through regular calls and email updates for all collaborating investigators.

• Collaborators will not use the information/data provided on calls in advance of publication without prior discussion and agreement of the group.

• Wider contributions to the analysis group and proposed subprojects are actively encouraged and proposals can be made and discussed at calls.

WAVES Authorship Guidelines

In general WAVES follows the ICJME guidelines for authorship. An author must make:

1. Substantial contribution to the concept or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
2. Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND
3. Final approval of the version to be published; AND
4. Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work, ensuring that questions related to accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Specifically:

1. The WAVES Team has developed and maintains a Manuscript Matrix of publications. This document indicates a lead author who will oversee developing each work and meeting the publication timeline.
2. For the 3 core manuscripts, the lead and senior author positions have been decided and listed in the matrix. (i.e., step counts, MVPA, sedentary time).
3. Any member of the WAVES Team (including, and especially trainees) can propose additional publications to the rest of the team. If agreed, these proposed publications will be added to the Manuscript Matrix and become the responsibility of the lead author.
4. An overarching goal is to ensure first and last authors for each manuscript will have primary affiliations from different institutions.
5. Individuals who make a substantial contribution to a WAVES study should be given the opportunity to be part of the authorship process. All authors should be identified before a work is started. Note:
   1. Ghost or relinquished authorship (i.e., when a person makes a substantial contribution to the research or manuscript but is not listed as an author) is not permitted.
   2. Gift or honorary authorship (i.e., the addition of an author who has not made a substantial contribution to the research or manuscript) is not permitted.
   3. Planted authorship (i.e., where an individual has been named as author without his or her knowledge or consent) is not permitted.
6. We will aim to offer up to 3 authorship positions for each validation dataset that is contributed to the work.
7. Contribution of a validation dataset means you agree meet the requirements study intake form.
8. For projects with more equal contributions across investigators, up to 2–3 additional collaborators may be included under “…and the WAVES Collaborators.” These additional collaborators will have the opportunity to review the manuscript if they request to do so and will be listed as collaborators (e.g., indexed on PubMed). Project lead (primary author and senior author) and the majority of authors should agree on the publication venue (e.g., the targeted journal) as early in the process as possible.
9. Author order should be determined as follows, unless the venue of the publication mandates otherwise:
   1. First author should be the individual who has made the most substantial contribution and/or taken the lead in writing the manuscript.
   2. Additional authors should be listed immediately after the first author in the order of the declining magnitude of the contribution; when several authors are deemed to have made a comparable contribution, names will be listed in alphabetical order.
   3. The individual who has overall responsibility for the reported study should be listed last.
10. The lead author’s responsibilities include:
    1. Inviting all individuals who have made a substantial contribution to a WAVES study to participate in the authoring process.
    2. Leading the author team in the writing process.
    3. Integrating the various components of the manuscript so that the parts collectively present a coherent work.
    4. Preparing a short, written description of each author’s contributions to the manuscript, and distributing the record to all authors to read, approve, sign, and return to the lead author for safekeeping.
    5. Communicating with authors during the writing and editing process.
    6. Confirming authors prior to the manuscript’s submission.
11. A secondary lead author should be identified in the case that the lead author decides to step down from their leadership role or is unable to meet the manuscript’s deadline as stated in the WAVES Manuscript Matrix.
12. If a lead author does not meet the timeline, the second author should have the opportunity to take the lead.
13. The corresponding author should be identified as early as possible. The corresponding author commits to:
    1. Obtaining written permission from all acknowledged individuals to be acknowledged in the work.
    2. Collecting and confirming the correct and desired spelling of author names
    3. Collecting accurate contact information and other information (e.g., Open Researcher and Contributor Identification) as requested by the submission protocols.
    4. Being available throughout the submission and peer review process.
    5. Responding to the journal’s editorial team in a timely manner.
    6. Regularly communicating with co-authors regarding review progress.
    7. Being available after publication to address critiques and requests for further information.
14. Contributors should be contacted for permission to be acknowledged in any publication, presentation, or other material before a work is submitted to a publication for consideration.
15. All authors should be involved in the review process.
16. All authors should approve the final manuscript before it is submitted for publication.
17. Should a dispute regarding authorship arise, authors should first attempt to resolve the issue together. If that fails, WAVES co-leads (See above) will assist with conflict resolution. As a last resort, a third party (someone not involved in the manuscript) will be asked to assist.

WHO IS INVOLVED IN A WAVES PUBLICATION?

The following describes the 3 types of involvement in the WAVES project:

Title	Description
Author	An author is a person who has made a substantial conceptual or material contribution to the contents of the publication or document. An author takes responsibility for at least one component of the work and should be confident in the overall integrity of the document. A lead author or authors are responsible for managing the writing process. A corresponding author is responsible for the submission, review and follow-up process after publication.
Guarantor	A journal may request that one or more authors be recognized as a public guarantor of the work. The guarantor is publicly accountable for the accuracy and integrity of the submitted work and research protocols (including data storage), and should be able to speak to the individual contributions of the work’s authors. A guarantor may or may not be listed as an author.
Contributor	A contributor is a person (or institution) who does not meet the definition of an author but who has contributed to WAVES research. This person (or institution) will be acknowledged in the publication for their contribution to the study. Examples of contributors include financial supporters, providers of technical and administrative services, project advisory committee members, community partners, and individuals assisting with access to study participants or materials.