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Authorship
Authorship is the means of describing those individuals who have made significant contributions to the submitted or published work and giving credit for the work to those persons. The Ethical Guidelines to Publication of Chemical Research state the following regarding authorship:
"The co-authors of a paper should be all those persons who have made significant scientific contributions to the work reported and who share responsibility and accountability for the results. Authors should appropriately recognize the contributions of technical staff and data professionals. Other contributions should be indicated in a footnote or an “Acknowledgments” section. An administrative relationship to the investigation does not of itself qualify a person for co-authorship (but occasionally it may be appropriate to acknowledge major administrative assistance). Deceased persons who meet the criterion for inclusion as co-authors should be so included, with a footnote reporting date of death. No fictitious name should be listed as an author or coauthor. The author who submits a manuscript for publication accepts the responsibility of having included as co-authors all persons appropriate and none inappropriate. The submitting author should have sent each living co-author a draft copy of the manuscript and have obtained the co-author’s assent to co-authorship of it."
Authors are encouraged to discuss authorship (including inclusion/exclusion as well as author order) at the start of a research project and continue this ongoing discussion throughout the research and publication process.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) Tools
As stated in the ACS AI Best Practices and Policy, artificial intelligence (AI) tools do not qualify for authorship. As non-person entities, these tools can neither take responsibility for published content, nor can they assent to co-authorship. The use of AI tools for text or image generation should be disclosed in the manuscript within the Acknowledgments section with a description of when and how the tools were used. For more substantial use cases or descriptions of AI tool use, authors should provide full details within the Methods or other appropriate section of the manuscript. The authors of the work are responsible for all submitted content and agree upon submission that generated content from AI tools is appropriate, both scientifically and based on the Ethical Guidelines to Publication of Chemical Research. For more information on use of AI, please review the ACS AI Best Practices and Policy.
Manuscript Preparation Services
If an individual or group has been used solely toward the preparation of the manuscript (e.g. help with writing and/or English language), it is unlikely that they would qualify for authorship on the work, as they will not maintain responsibility for the published work. Instead, use of manuscript preparation services or the help of individuals in manuscript preparation should be disclosed in the manuscript within the Acknowledgment section of the submitted work.
Author Affiliation
Author affiliation should reflect where the work was completed, even if the author has since left that institution. Authors may include a note with a current address and contact information if their institution has changed since the work was completed.
Authorship Changes
Removal and/or addition of an author or an update to the author order qualify as authorship changes. If any change in authorship is necessary after a manuscript has been submitted, confirmation is required that all of the authors (including those being added or removed) have been notified and have agreed to the change. Authors must also provide a reason for each change and explain how any added co-author(s) meet the authorship criteria as defined in the Ethical Guidelines to Publication of Chemical Research. To provide confirmation, all authors are required to complete and sign an authorship change form and submit the completed form to the appropriate editorial office. Please note that exceptions will not be made for large authorship lists and/or large numbers of changes.
Authorship changes are subject to editorial approval and insufficient and/or inappropriate reasons for changes may result in manuscript rejection. In general, the addition of new authors will be deemed inappropriate unless fully explained and justified in the context of their scientific contributions to the work. Authorship changes post-acceptance will generally not be considered.
Changes will not be made within an original article after issue publication. In the rare circumstance that an authorship change is required after publication, an Addition/Correction can be published as a linked, separate document. Authors who wish to submit for consideration a linked correction may do so by following instructions listed in the journal's author guidelines with an authorship change form included as part of the submission.
Contested Authorship
ACS Publications follows guidance from the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) when considering instances of contested authorship. ACS Publications, its journals, and Editors cannot adjudicate matters of authorship and are unable to investigate or authenticate the intellectual contributions made toward the determination of authorship. If there is disagreement about the authorship of a work, authors are encouraged to reach mutual agreement on the authorship prior to submitting their manuscript, involving an institutional official or trusted third party to mediate as needed. If a change in authorship is needed after initial submission and can be agreed upon, or is determined after institutional involvement, authors may follow the process described above to request changes in authorship. However, if an agreement cannot be reached amongst the authors and other involved parties, the matter must be referred to the appropriate institution(s) to adjudicate. If authorship remains contested during the peer review process, ACS Publications journals will suspend consideration of the submission until the matter can be resolved.
Author Name Changes
Author name changes after publication that do not involve changes in the authorship list of the work (removal, addition, or changes in authorship order) are an exception to other authorship change policies listed above. Authors have two options to update their name on prior publications: update (replace) name on the HTML and PDF versions or publish a linked Addition/Correction. See ACS Publications Name Change Policy for the complete policy, instructions to initiate a name change request, and FAQs.
Last Updated: March 2023
