Authorship Criteria

Al Dzahab: Journal of Economics, Management, Business and Accounting is committed to ensuring that authorship accurately reflects the intellectual contributions and responsibilities of individuals involved in the preparation of a manuscript. All authors must have made substantial scholarly contributions to the submitted work and must be willing to take responsibility for its content and integrity.

1. Eligibility for Authorship

To qualify for authorship, each author must meet all of the following criteria:

  1. Substantial contribution: Make a significant intellectual contribution to the conception or design of the study, data collection, data analysis, interpretation of findings, or development of the theoretical framework.

  2. Manuscript preparation: Participate in drafting the manuscript or critically reviewing it for important intellectual content.

  3. Final approval: Review and approve the final version of the manuscript before submission or publication.

  4. Accountability and integrity: Accept responsibility for the accuracy, integrity, and ethical conduct of the work and cooperate in addressing any questions or concerns related to its content.

These criteria apply equally to the first author, corresponding author, and co-authors. All individuals who meet the authorship requirements should be appropriately credited, and all individuals listed as authors must satisfy the criteria above.

2. Corresponding Author Responsibilities

The corresponding author is responsible for communicating with the editorial office throughout the submission, peer-review, revision, and publication processes. The corresponding author must ensure that:

  • All authors have approved the manuscript and agreed to its submission to Al Dzahab.

  • All author names, institutional affiliations, and contact details are accurate and complete.

  • The order of authors has been agreed upon by all authors before submission.

  • The manuscript is original, has not been published previously, and is not under consideration by another journal.

  • Any relevant conflicts of interest, funding sources, ethical approvals, and other required disclosures are properly declared.

  • All co-authors are informed of editorial decisions and significant changes made during the publication process.

3. Author Order and Changes in Authorship

The order of authors must be determined collectively by the authors based on their respective scholarly contributions. Al Dzahab does not prescribe a universal order of authorship, but all authors must agree to the proposed order before submission.

Any request to add, remove, or rearrange authors after submission must be accompanied by a written explanation and the agreement of all affected authors, including those being added or removed. Such requests are subject to editorial review and approval. Changes in authorship must not be made solely to provide academic credit to individuals who do not meet the authorship criteria.

4. Contributions That Do Not Qualify for Authorship

Activities that do not independently justify authorship include providing funding, general supervision, administrative support, data entry, technical assistance, language editing, proofreading, or routine data collection without substantial intellectual involvement.

Individuals who have contributed to the work but do not meet all authorship criteria may be acknowledged in the Acknowledgments section, with their contributions clearly described and their permission obtained where appropriate.

5. Prevention of Unethical Authorship Practices

Al Dzahab does not accept unethical authorship practices, including:

  • Gift or honorary authorship: Listing individuals as authors who have not made qualifying scholarly contributions.

  • Guest authorship: Including individuals primarily because of their academic position, reputation, or institutional authority without qualifying contributions.

  • Ghost authorship: Omitting individuals who have made substantial contributions to the research or manuscript.

  • Misrepresentation of contributions: Providing inaccurate or misleading information about the roles of authors.

The journal reserves the right to investigate suspected authorship violations and take appropriate editorial action in accordance with publication ethics principles.

6. Use of Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence (AI) tools, including generative AI applications, cannot be listed as authors because they cannot assume responsibility for the accuracy, integrity, and accountability of scholarly work.

Authors remain fully responsible for the originality, accuracy, verification, and integrity of all content submitted to the journal. Any substantive use of AI tools in manuscript preparation, data analysis, or the generation of text, images, or other research materials must be disclosed in accordance with the journal's AI-use and publication ethics policies. AI tools must not be used to fabricate or falsify data, references, research findings, or other scholarly content.

7. Author Contribution Statement

All submissions should include an author contribution statement describing the specific roles of each author. Where appropriate, authors are encouraged to use the Contributor Roles Taxonomy (CRediT), including conceptualization, methodology, data curation, formal analysis, investigation, validation, visualization, writing—original draft, writing—review and editing, supervision, project administration, and funding acquisition.

The contribution statement must accurately reflect each author's actual involvement in the research and manuscript preparation.

8. Ethical Compliance

By submitting a manuscript to Al Dzahab, the corresponding author confirms that all listed authors meet the journal's authorship criteria, have approved the submitted version, and agree to be accountable for their contributions. The journal encourages authors to discuss and establish authorship arrangements at the beginning of their research collaboration to prevent disputes and ensure transparency.

This policy is informed by internationally recognized publication ethics recommendations, including the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) guidance on authorship and contributor responsibilities.