Questions?

It depends on the involvement with the project and manuscript. We follow the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) for defining the role of authorship and contributors. As per the guidelines;

‘The ICMJE recommends that authorship be based on the following 4 criteria:

• Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND

• Drafting the work or reviewing it critically for important intellectual content; AND

• Final approval of the version to be published; AND

• Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.’

 

The role of the manuscript editing service is limited only to recommendations for improving the writing and presentation of the manuscript and, if requested and appropriate, critical review for important intellectual content. The manuscript remains the work of the original authors, who are to give final approval of the manuscript before submission and remain accountable for all aspects of the work. 

​

Track Changers do not provide ghost authorship. This means preparation of the writing material (such as preparing the first draft or writing substantial proportions of the manuscript) and not declaring the contribution of the author, or their affiliation. 

 

Under the ICMJE guidelines, the contributions of the Track Changers editing service may be considered as writing assistance, technical editing, language editing, and/or proofreading. As recommended by the World Association of Medical Editors, journals should specify in their instructions to authors if contributions from medical writers are legitimate, and how to describe their role and affiliation within the manuscript. It is worth checking with your intended or target journal how they approach this type of contribution. In most instances, it is likely appropriate to acknowledge the individual who provided the writing assistance in the Acknowledgements section of the paper. These issues can be discussed at the initial consultation for your manuscript.