Authorship Criteria

1. Authorship Policy

JDHT Journal of Dental Hygiene and Therapy is committed to ensuring that authorship accurately reflects the contributions of individuals to the conception, design, conduct, analysis, and reporting of scholarly research. The journal follows recognized standards of publication ethics to promote transparency, accountability, and fairness in determining authorship.

Authorship should be granted only to individuals who have made substantial intellectual contributions to the work and who are willing to take public responsibility for the content of the manuscript. All individuals listed as authors must meet the journal's authorship criteria, and all contributors who do not meet these criteria should be appropriately acknowledged in the Acknowledgments section, with their consent.

2. Authorship Criteria

To qualify for authorship in JDHT Journal of Dental Hygiene and Therapy, an individual must meet all of the following criteria, consistent with the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE):

Substantial contribution: Have made substantial contributions to the conception or design of the study, or to the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data.
Drafting or critical revision: Have drafted the manuscript or critically revised it for important intellectual content.
Final approval: Have approved the final version of the manuscript to be submitted for publication.
Accountability: Have agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work, ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the research are appropriately investigated and resolved.

All four criteria must be fulfilled for an individual to be listed as an author. Individuals who contribute to only one aspect of the work, such as data collection, administrative support, funding acquisition, or general supervision, do not automatically qualify for authorship unless they also meet all the criteria above.

3. Author Contributions

All authors are expected to make meaningful contributions to the research and manuscript in accordance with the authorship criteria. The journal encourages authors to provide a clear description of each author's contribution during manuscript submission.

Where appropriate, author contributions may be described using the Contributor Roles Taxonomy (CRediT), including roles such as conceptualization, methodology, investigation, data curation, formal analysis, writing—original draft, writing—review and editing, supervision, project administration, and funding acquisition.

The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that the contribution statements accurately represent the work performed by each author and that all authors have reviewed and approved the submitted information.

4. Corresponding Author Responsibilities

The corresponding author serves as the primary contact between the journal and all co-authors throughout the submission, peer review, revision, and publication processes.

The corresponding author is responsible for:

Ensuring that all listed authors meet the journal's authorship criteria.
Confirming that all authors have approved the final manuscript and agreed to its submission to JDHT Journal of Dental Hygiene and Therapy.
Providing accurate author names, affiliations, email addresses, and other required information.
Ensuring that all authors' contributions are accurately reported.
Disclosing relevant conflicts of interest, funding sources, and ethical approvals, where applicable.
Coordinating responses to editorial and reviewer comments and communicating editorial decisions to all co-authors.
Ensuring that all co-authors are informed of any revisions and the final publication decision.

The corresponding author must obtain the agreement of all co-authors before submitting the manuscript and must communicate relevant editorial correspondence to them.

5. First Author and Co-Authors

The first author is generally the individual who has made the principal contribution to the research and manuscript preparation. However, the allocation of first authorship should reflect the actual contributions agreed upon by the research team.

All co-authors share responsibility for the integrity of the work and must be able to identify their own contributions and understand the overall research sufficiently to take appropriate responsibility for the manuscript.

When two or more authors have contributed equally, the authors may indicate equal contributions in the manuscript, provided that the journal's submission system and publication format allow such a designation.

6. Authorship and Acknowledgments

Individuals who have contributed to the research but do not meet all authorship criteria should not be listed as authors. Their contributions may instead be recognized in the Acknowledgments section, provided that they have given permission to be acknowledged.

Contributions that may be acknowledged include technical assistance, administrative support, language editing, data collection support, or general supervision, provided that these contributions do not independently satisfy the journal's authorship criteria.

The use of professional writing or editing assistance should be disclosed when relevant, including the identity of the individuals or organizations providing the assistance and the source of funding for such services, where applicable.

7. Changes in Authorship

Any request to add, remove, or rearrange authors after manuscript submission must be submitted to the editorial office with a clear justification and written agreement from all authors, including those being added or removed.

The editor may request additional documentation to verify the legitimacy of the proposed change. Changes in authorship will not be approved automatically and must be authorized by the editor in accordance with the journal's editorial procedures.

After publication, changes to authorship will be considered only in exceptional circumstances and will be handled in accordance with the journal's publication ethics and correction policies.

8. Guest, Gift, and Ghost Authorship

JDHT Journal of Dental Hygiene and Therapy does not permit guest authorship, gift authorship, or ghost authorship.

Guest authorship refers to listing an individual as an author despite insufficient contribution, often because of their reputation, position, or influence.
Gift authorship refers to granting authorship as a courtesy or favor without meeting the established authorship criteria.
Ghost authorship refers to omitting individuals who have made substantial qualifying contributions to the research or manuscript.

All listed authors must satisfy the journal's authorship criteria, and all individuals who meet these criteria should be appropriately included as authors. Any suspected authorship misconduct may be investigated in accordance with the journal's publication ethics policies.

9. Use of Artificial Intelligence Tools

Artificial intelligence (AI) tools, including generative AI systems, cannot be listed as authors because they cannot take responsibility for the accuracy, integrity, originality, and ethical aspects of scholarly work.

Authors who use AI tools in preparing a manuscript must remain fully responsible for the content and must verify the accuracy of any generated information, references, data, or statements. The use of AI tools should be disclosed in accordance with the journal's AI policy and applicable submission requirements.

AI tools must not be cited as authors, and their use does not exempt human authors from fulfilling all authorship criteria.

10. Authorship Disputes

Disputes concerning authorship, author order, or individual contributions should initially be resolved by the authors and their affiliated institutions whenever possible.

If a dispute is reported to the journal, the editor may request written explanations or supporting documentation from the parties involved. The journal may suspend editorial processing or publication while a serious authorship dispute is being investigated.

The journal will not independently determine disputed research contributions beyond the evidence available to it. Where necessary, the matter may be referred to the relevant institutional authority for investigation and resolution, in accordance with applicable publication ethics guidance.

11. Author Declaration

By submitting a manuscript to JDHT Journal of Dental Hygiene and Therapy, all authors confirm that:

They meet the authorship criteria established by the journal.
They have made genuine intellectual contributions to the research and manuscript.
They have reviewed and approved the final version of the manuscript.
They agree to be accountable for the integrity and accuracy of the work.
The author list and contribution statements are accurate and have been agreed upon by all authors.
Any relevant conflicts of interest, funding sources, ethical approvals, and use of AI tools have been disclosed as required.

JDHT Journal of Dental Hygiene and Therapy reserves the right to request clarification or supporting documentation regarding authorship and author contributions whenever necessary to ensure compliance with publication ethics standards.