Authorship and Contributorship Policy

Scholarly Contribution • Transparency • Accountability

Authorship and Contributorship Policy

Ilomata International Journal of Tax and Accounting requires authorship to accurately reflect substantial scholarly contributions to research in taxation, tax compliance, financial accounting, management accounting, auditing, financial reporting, accounting information systems, public-sector accounting, sustainability reporting, fiscal policy, and related fields.

SUBSTANTIAL CONTRIBUTION CRediT TAXONOMY FULL ACCOUNTABILITY

Authorship represents both academic credit and responsibility. A person should be listed as an author only when they have made a meaningful intellectual contribution to the research and accept responsibility for the integrity, accuracy, transparency, ethical conduct, and scholarly quality of the published work.

1. Criteria for Authorship

All listed authors must demonstrate substantial scholarly involvement in the study. Authorship should normally include all of the following:

1	Substantial Research Contribution Significant contribution to the tax or accounting research problem, conceptual framework, hypothesis development, financial-statement analysis, tax-compliance assessment, audit research, accounting-information-system evaluation, public-sector or sustainability reporting analysis, data collection, methodology, econometric or statistical analysis, qualitative analysis, or interpretation of findings.
2	Intellectual Contribution to the Manuscript Active participation in drafting the manuscript or critically revising its accounting theory, tax framework, audit rationale, methodological design, financial interpretation, regulatory implications, fiscal-policy discussion, or scholarly contribution.
3	Final Approval Review and approval of the final manuscript, including the accuracy of author names, affiliations, accounting data, tax variables, financial indicators, audit findings, model specifications, declarations, regulatory interpretations, and references.
4	Accountability Agreement to take responsibility for the author's contribution and to cooperate in resolving questions concerning financial data, tax data, audit evidence, accounting records, econometric models, statistical analyses, regulatory interpretation, research ethics, research integrity, authorship, or other aspects of the published work.

Activities That Do Not Alone Qualify for Authorship

The following activities, when performed alone, are generally insufficient to justify authorship:

• Providing research funding only	• Providing access to financial statements, tax records, audit files, company records, government data, or accounting databases only
• General academic, accounting, tax, audit, or administrative supervision	• Holding an executive, accountant, auditor, tax-officer, institutional, or managerial position
• Routine bookkeeping, document retrieval, data extraction, data entry, or clerical assistance	• Language editing, proofreading, translation, or formatting only
• Providing accounting software, financial databases, tax documents, audit systems, office facilities, or technical support only	• General encouragement, networking, or mentorship without scholarly contribution

Individuals providing these forms of assistance may be recognized in the Acknowledgments section, subject to their permission where appropriate.

2. Author Contribution Statement – CRediT

Every accepted manuscript must include an Author Contribution Statement. Authors are encouraged to use the CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy) to identify each author's contribution transparently.

Conceptualization Development of tax research ideas, accounting questions, audit hypotheses, financial-reporting frameworks, compliance issues, sustainability-accounting concepts, fiscal-policy questions, or theoretical models.	Methodology Development or design of econometric, statistical, survey, experimental, archival, qualitative, case-study, auditing, taxation, or accounting-information-system research methods.
Formal Analysis Financial, accounting, taxation, audit, econometric, statistical, compliance, fiscal, reporting, ratio, panel-data, qualitative, or other analytical work.	Investigation Conducting surveys, interviews, financial-record reviews, audit-document analyses, tax-compliance studies, organizational case studies, regulatory reviews, or empirical data collection.
Data Curation Collecting, cleaning, coding, anonymizing, organizing, documenting, reconciling, or maintaining financial, accounting, audit, taxation, fiscal, corporate, or public-sector datasets.	Software Statistical coding, econometric modeling, accounting-data processing, tax-data analysis, audit analytics, database development, or development of analytical tools.
Validation Verification of financial data, accounting measures, tax variables, audit indicators, model specifications, calculations, coding procedures, regulatory classifications, or analytical outputs.	Visualization Preparation of research tables, financial charts, accounting models, tax-compliance frameworks, audit diagrams, sustainability-reporting figures, or data visualizations.
Writing – Original Draft Preparation of the initial scholarly manuscript.	Writing – Review & Editing Critical intellectual review and substantive manuscript revision.
Resources Provision of essential financial databases, accounting records, tax documents, audit materials, survey instruments, company access, regulatory documents, or other resources combined with scholarly contribution.	Supervision Intellectual oversight and scholarly guidance of the research process.
Project Administration Coordination and management of research activities.	Funding Acquisition Acquisition of financial support for the research project.

Note: Assignment of a CRediT role does not automatically qualify an individual for authorship. The individual must also satisfy the journal's authorship requirements and accept accountability.

3. Example of Author Contribution Statement

Example – Quantitative Accounting / Taxation Research

Author Contributions: A.B.: Conceptualization, Methodology, Formal Analysis, Writing – Original Draft. C.D.: Data Curation, Software, Validation, Visualization. E.F.: Supervision, Writing – Review & Editing. All authors approved the final manuscript and agreed to be accountable for their contributions.

Example – Auditing / Tax Compliance / Accounting Case Research

Author Contributions: A.B.: Conceptualization, Investigation, Methodology, Writing – Original Draft. C.D.: Investigation, Data Curation, Formal Analysis. E.F.: Validation, Supervision, Writing – Review & Editing. All authors reviewed and approved the final manuscript.

4. Author Order

Author order must be determined and agreed upon collectively by the author group before manuscript submission. The journal does not assign or determine author order.

The authorship list and order must be consistent across the submitted manuscript, OJS metadata, Author Contribution Statement, declarations, data or analytical documentation where applicable, and final published article.

5. Corresponding Author

One author must be identified as the corresponding author and serve as the primary contact between the journal and all co-authors.

✓ Ensures all authors approve manuscript submission	✓ Verifies author names, affiliations, email, and ORCID information
✓ Coordinates responses to reviewers	✓ Ensures all authors approve substantive revisions
✓ Verifies funding, data-access permissions, confidentiality, and Conflict of Interest Statements	✓ Coordinates Data Availability, financial-data, tax-data, audit-data, or supplementary-material statements where applicable
✓ Coordinates final proof approval	✓ Responds to post-publication methodological or research-integrity inquiries when necessary

6. Unacceptable Authorship Practices

✕ Guest / Honorary Authorship Adding senior academics, executives, chief financial officers, accountants, auditors, tax officials, institutional leaders, or respected individuals who did not make sufficient scholarly contributions.	✕ Ghost Authorship Excluding individuals who made substantial contributions to accounting analysis, tax research, auditing, financial modeling, econometric analysis, regulatory interpretation, or manuscript preparation that qualify for authorship.
✕ Gift / Reciprocal Authorship Exchanging or granting authorship without genuine scholarly contribution.	✕ Purchased Authorship Buying, selling, or transferring authorship positions.
✕ Coercive Authorship Requiring inclusion because of supervisory, executive, corporate, audit, taxation, institutional, managerial, or professional authority.	✕ Unauthorized Authorship Listing a person without their knowledge and approval.

7. Changes to Authorship

Addition, removal, or rearrangement of authors after submission must be exceptional and supported by a clear explanation and written consent from all affected authors.

BEFORE ACCEPTANCE
May be considered with full written agreement

AFTER ACCEPTANCE
Exceptional and subject to editorial approval

AFTER PUBLICATION
May require a formal Correction Notice

8. Authorship Disputes

The Editorial Team may request explanations and documentation when an authorship dispute arises. However, the journal does not normally adjudicate disputes concerning who should or should not qualify as an author. Unresolved disputes may be referred to the authors' institution, research-integrity office, employer, professional body, or another appropriate authority. Editorial processing may be suspended until the dispute is resolved.

9. Artificial Intelligence and Authorship

Artificial intelligence tools, large language models, generative AI systems, and AI-based accounting, audit, taxation, or financial-analytics platforms must not be listed as authors or co-authors. AI cannot accept accountability, approve a manuscript, declare conflicts of interest, or take responsibility for research integrity. Relevant AI-assisted activities, including AI-supported writing, coding, financial-data processing, tax-data analysis, audit analytics, anomaly detection, predictive modeling, document classification, or analytical interpretation, must instead be disclosed according to the journal's Artificial Intelligence (AI) Usage Policy.

Authorship Checklist Before Submission

✓ Every listed author has made a genuine scholarly contribution	✓ No eligible contributor has been omitted
✓ Author order has been approved by all authors	✓ All authors approved the submitted manuscript
✓ Author Contribution Statement is complete	✓ Corresponding author has been identified
✓ OJS metadata matches the manuscript	✓ Financial-data sources, tax-data sources, accounting definitions, audit evidence, regulatory references, confidentiality, and supplementary-material statements are accurate where applicable
✓ AI-assisted activities have been disclosed where required	✓ All authors accept responsibility for the published work

Authorship Principle

In Ilomata International Journal of Tax and Accounting, authorship is based on substantive intellectual contribution and accountability. Academic rank, executive or institutional authority, access to accounting records, financial statements, tax databases, audit files, company information, accounting software, funding alone, routine bookkeeping or clerical assistance, supervisory status, or professional seniority does not by itself justify authorship.