This page states BMU-wide publishing principles. It does not replace journal-specific author guidelines, peer-review descriptions, fee schedules or discipline-specific ethical requirements. Operational claims apply only where implemented by the relevant journal or publisher system.
Authorship criteria
A person listed as an author should have made a substantial scholarly contribution, participated meaningfully in drafting or critical revision, approved the version to be published and accepted accountability for their contribution and for the integrity of the work within their sphere of responsibility.
Acquisition of funding, routine supervision, general administrative support, language editing or provision of materials does not by itself justify authorship where the substantive criteria are not met.
Contributorship
Journals should request transparent contribution statements. Structured contributor taxonomies may be used to describe roles such as conceptualisation, methodology, data curation, formal analysis, investigation, software, visualisation, writing and supervision.
A contributorship statement complements but does not automatically determine authorship. Individuals who assisted but do not meet authorship criteria should be acknowledged appropriately with their permission where required.
Corresponding author
The corresponding author acts as the principal communication route during submission and publication and is expected to ensure that all listed authors are aware of and approve the submission.
The corresponding author should coordinate responses concerning declarations, authorship, proofs and post-publication questions, while all authors retain responsibility for the integrity of their own contributions.
Author identification and affiliations
Names, affiliations and identifiers should be accurate and should reflect the institutional relationship relevant to the work. False affiliations, purchased affiliations and identity misuse are integrity concerns.
Where identity or authority to submit is reasonably questioned, a journal may seek proportionate verification and may contact co-authors directly.
Author order and group authorship
Author order should reflect a legitimate agreement among contributors and should not be manipulated as a condition of payment, power or unrelated benefit. Discipline-specific conventions may differ and should be respected where transparent.
Group or consortium authorship should distinguish the collective name from identifiable individual contributors where this is necessary for accountability and indexing.
Changes after submission
Addition, removal or reordering of authors after submission should require a clear explanation and documented agreement from affected authors. Changes after acceptance or publication require heightened scrutiny because they alter the scholarly record.
Disputed authorship should not be resolved by the journal through unsupported adjudication of institutional employment or interpersonal disputes. The journal may pause processing and seek evidence or institutional input where necessary.
Names and pronouns
Requests to update a published author name or pronoun should be handled respectfully, with attention to privacy, indexing and preservation of the publication record. A journal should avoid unnecessary disclosure of the reason for a name change.
AI and authorship
Artificial-intelligence systems cannot satisfy authorship accountability and therefore should not be listed as authors. Human authors remain responsible for content produced, analysed, translated or edited with AI assistance.
Policy basis and interpretation
Adapted principally from JHWCR Policies 11–13. The BMU version generalises journal-specific material into a publisher framework and removes details that should remain title-specific. Where a journal publishes a more specific requirement that is consistent with these principles, the journal-specific rule governs that journal's submissions.
Questions about this framework may be sent to info@bmuventures.com.