MAT is committed to inclusive authorship and to recognising all contributions to published articles. We are aware that the process of undertaking research and preparing publications in the field of medical anthropology is often collaborative, involving multiple people in different roles. These roles’ associated responsibilities might include the initial conception and framing of a research project, the acquisition of funding, the development of methodological approaches and research protocols, literature reviews, data collection, analysis, the writing of drafts, and the provision of feedback and other contributions written by others. In determining and declaring authorship and contributions to an article, we ask that authors follow the following guidelines:  

1. The roles and contributions of all authors should be clearly stated on the cover page of the final accepted manuscript. It is the responsibility of authors to determine order of authorship, but we encourage decisions on the order to reflect the degree of contribution.  
2. When determining co-authors, we ask lead authors to be mindful of the benefits of diversity in authorship and to consider inviting co-authors who reflect diversity in every sense, including (but not limited to) background, career stage, gender, geography, ’ethnicity’, and ’race’.  
3. We encourage collaboration and co-authorship with colleagues in the locations where research is conducted.   
4. Anthropological research methods, including ethnographic research, often blur the lines between data collection and analysis. Where researchers involved in data collection have made a substantial contribution to the ideas and arguments included in an article, we encourage their inclusion as authors, even where it has not been possible for them to contribute to the drafting and revising of the manuscript.     
5. All non-author contributions to the article should be credited in the article acknowledgements. These contributions include, for example, some forms of data collection, supervision of a research group, administrative support, writing assistance, technical editing, language editing, and/or proofreading. Those whose contributions do not justify authorship should be acknowledged individually with their contributions specified. Acknowledgment of contribution to a study does not indicate contributors’ endorsement of data and conclusions.  
6. All authors must agree to be jointly accountable for the article.   

 

Corresponding author responsibilities  

The corresponding author takes responsibility for all correspondence with the MAT team and any queries or complaints following publication.