WWW.WAS.ORG • WORLD AQUACULTURE • SEPTEMBER 2023 71 • Responsible for ensuring that all authors have reviewed and approved the final version of the manuscript prior to submission, • The person who uploads the manuscript to the online submission site, or sends it to the journal for peer review, • Responsible for distributing communications from the journal, such as decision letters and reviewers’ reports (CW Authors 2023). In summary, the corresponding author is responsible for submitting a work product to a journal or other medium for publication, and for communicating with the publisher on issues of publication revision and acceptance. The name and email address of the corresponding author is often noted in the work product, as he or she serves as a point of contact. After publication, the corresponding author manages all communication and correspondence associated with the work product on behalf of the other authors. Authorship Author: Merriam-Webster defines author as originator, creator, authoritative source, writer. To put it plainly, the authors are the writers and only the writers of the manuscript. Authorship must be based on the following four criteria: 1. Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work (Yale University 2023); and 2. Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; and 3. Final approval of the version to be published; and 4. Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved (CW Authors 2023). The next most common question asked is what order should be used in which to assign authors, if there are multiple authors. The standard convention is: 1. The person who does the most work goes first, 2. After that, names are placed in the order of greatest contribution (CW Authors 2023). Authorship on papers in peer-reviewed journals is one of the major currencies of the scientific enterprise; but what about authorship in a non-peer-reviewed magazine? The currency is much devalued, right? Maybe, depending what the author(s) are hoping to accomplish. Some authors want to get their name out or their students names out to establish territory. That might work, so long as there aren’t too many authors. Too many authors muddy the waters. When the paper is cited, it is often shortened to senior author then et al. (Example: Smith, et al. 2020). Who the others are (et al. = and others) is often a mystery. Questions remain...who is really responsible? Who actually wrote the paper? Were 10 authors necessary to conjure up a 3-5 page article? It comes across to the editors as everyone in the laboratory being listed as authors. The question often asked is why so many? Authorship should represent the work of writing the paper. Writing one or two paragraphs does not make an author. Conceiving the study, funding the study, authorizing the study, working on the study, though important contributions, do not qualify as or for authorship. It has been, for many years, the policy of World Aquaculture magazine to limit the author list to 5 or fewer authors. If an article is submitted with more than 5 authors, the corresponding author is made aware of the policy and asked to reduce the number of authors. The corresponding author is counseled to place some of the authors in the Acknowledgments section or have some of the authors write another paper detailing their part of the study. Notes Mary Nickum, All Things Editorial, LLC, 16845 E. Avenue of the Fountains, Ste. 325, Fountain Hills, AZ 85268 References Author Services. 2023. https://authorservices. taylorandfrancis.com/editorial-policies/ defining-authorship-research-paper/ (accessed May23, 2023) CW Authors. 2023. https://www.cwauthors. com/article/CorrespondingAuthor (accessed May23, 2023) World Aquaculture. 2023. Author Guidelines. World Aquaculture Society, Sorrento, LA USA Yale University. 2023. https://provost. yale.edu/policies/academic-integrity/ guidance-authorship-scholarly-or-scientificpublications. (accessed May24, 2023) Editor in Chief’s note: Mary Nickum has served as our Editor since 2004 FIGURE 1.
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