Authorship Principles

Geliotekhnika recognizes authorship as both acknowledgement of scholarly contribution and acceptance of responsibility for the accuracy, integrity, and reliability of the published work.

Authorship must be based on substantial intellectual contribution rather than academic position, institutional authority, professional status, acquisition of funding, administrative leadership, personal relationships, or honorary recognition.

All listed authors must meet the criteria in this policy. Individuals who contributed but do not qualify for authorship must not be included in the author list; their contribution may be recognized in the Acknowledgments section where appropriate.

Authorship Criteria

To qualify as an author, an individual must meet all of the following criteria:

  1. make a substantial contribution to the conception or design of the research, or to the acquisition, analysis, interpretation, verification, or validation of data, calculations, and results;

  2. participate in drafting the manuscript or critically revising its important intellectual content;

  3. review and approve the final version submitted for publication;

  4. accept accountability for their own contribution and agree to cooperate in resolving questions concerning the accuracy, integrity, or reliability of any part of the work.

Each author must be able to identify their contribution and understand, to a reasonable extent, which parts of the work are the responsibility of other co-authors.

An individual who meets the first criterion must be given a reasonable opportunity to participate in drafting or critically revising the manuscript and approving its final version.

Contributions That Are Insufficient for Authorship

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

  • acquiring funding without substantial intellectual contribution;

  • general administrative or institutional supervision;

  • holding a senior academic or managerial position;

  • providing laboratory space, equipment, materials, or routine technical assistance;

  • collecting data without participating in the research design, analysis, or interpretation;

  • routine language editing, proofreading, formatting, or translation;

  • providing general advice that does not constitute a substantial scientific contribution;

  • arranging access to participants, institutions, facilities, or research sites;

  • providing paid professional or technical services.

Such contributors may be recognized, with their consent, in the Acknowledgments section.

Unacceptable Authorship Practices

The journal does not permit:

  • guest authorship — listing a non-contributor to increase the manuscript’s prestige or likelihood of publication;

  • gift or honorary authorship — listing an individual because of position, authority, personal relationship, or expected reciprocal benefit rather than scholarly contribution;

  • ghost authorship — excluding a person who meets the authorship criteria or failing to disclose substantial professional writing assistance;

  • purchased, sold, or transferred authorship — adding, removing, selling, buying, or exchanging an authorship position for financial, professional, or other improper benefit;

  • coercive authorship — requiring the inclusion of an individual through institutional hierarchy, supervisory authority, control of funding, or another form of pressure.

If inappropriate authorship is identified, the editorial process may be suspended, the manuscript rejected, a correction or retraction published, the relevant institution notified, or other action taken under the journal’s publication ethics policies.

Author Contributions

All multi-author manuscripts must include an Author Contributions statement specifying each author’s contribution.

Where appropriate, contributions are described according to the CRediT Contributor Roles Taxonomy. CRediT improves transparency, but assignment of a CRediT role does not automatically mean that an individual qualifies for authorship.

CRediT comprises 14 roles:

  • Conceptualization;

  • Data curation;

  • Formal analysis;

  • Funding acquisition;

  • Investigation;

  • Methodology;

  • Project administration;

  • Resources;

  • Software;

  • Supervision;

  • Validation;

  • Visualization;

  • Writing – original draft;

  • Writing – review and editing.

Only roles actually performed may be listed. Authors are identified by initials in the contribution statement, which must be approved by all authors before submission.

Equal contribution by two or more authors may be stated explicitly. A statement of joint first authorship, equal contribution by senior authors, or joint supervision must accurately reflect the work performed and be approved by all authors.

Author Order

The author order must be agreed jointly by all authors before submission.

The journal does not determine author order and does not assume that a particular position automatically represents a specific amount or type of contribution. Authors are responsible for applying the accepted practice of their discipline and ensuring that the order accurately reflects their collective agreement.

Statements of equal contribution, joint first authorship, or joint supervision must be clearly presented in the manuscript and approved by all authors.

Responsibilities of the Corresponding Author

The corresponding author is the principal contact between the journal and all authors throughout submission, peer review, revision, production, publication, and post-publication correspondence.

The corresponding author must:

  • confirm that all listed authors meet the authorship criteria;

  • ensure that no qualifying contributor has been excluded;

  • verify that all authors have approved the manuscript, author order, declarations, and submission;

  • provide complete and accurate author names, affiliations, ORCID identifiers, and contact details;

  • include all required statements on author contributions, funding, competing interests, ethics approval, consent, data availability, and use of artificial intelligence;

  • communicate editorial decisions, reviewer comments, and revision requirements to all authors;

  • coordinate point-by-point responses;

  • ensure that all authors approve the final version;

  • respond to legitimate post-publication questions;

  • cooperate with the journal in correcting errors and investigating integrity concerns.

Specific administrative submission tasks may be delegated to another authorized person, but this does not remove the corresponding author’s responsibilities.

Responsibilities of All Authors

Each author must:

  • ensure that their contribution is accurately described;

  • review the entire manuscript, not only the section they prepared;

  • approve the submitted and final versions;

  • disclose relevant competing interests;

  • disclose funding and institutional support;

  • cooperate with requests for data, documents, explanations, or corrections;

  • promptly notify the corresponding author and the journal of a significant error or concern;

  • accept accountability for the integrity of their contribution;

  • cooperate in resolving concerns relating to any part of the work.

No manuscript may be submitted without the knowledge and consent of all listed authors.

Group and Consortium Authorship

Research conducted by a formally organized group or consortium may, where appropriate, be published under the group name.

The manuscript must clearly identify:

  • the group or consortium name;

  • the individuals accepting direct responsibility for the manuscript;

  • contributors who meet the journal’s authorship criteria;

  • other contributors who do not qualify for authorship;

  • the person responsible for communication with the journal.

Where technically possible, individual group members who qualify for authorship are included in the article metadata.

Acknowledgments

Individuals who contributed but do not meet the authorship criteria may be recognized for technical or administrative assistance, language editing, translation, statistical advice, provision of equipment, materials or data, general scientific advice, or organizational support.

Authors must obtain consent before naming a person. Unless separately confirmed, acknowledgment does not imply that the named person endorses the results or conclusions.

Disclosures and Required Statements

Authors must provide complete and accurate statements concerning:

  • sources of funding, grant numbers, and official names of funders;

  • financial and non-financial competing interests;

  • ethics approval, where applicable;

  • informed consent, where applicable;

  • consent to publish identifiable information, where applicable;

  • data availability;

  • availability of code, software, computational models, and materials, where applicable;

  • use of artificial intelligence or AI-assisted tools;

  • author contributions.

Relevant information must be disclosed even if the author believes that the relationship did not affect the research. Failure to disclose material information may result in editorial investigation and corrective action.

Transparency of Data, Code, and Materials

Authors must state the availability of data, computer code, computational models, software, materials, protocols, and other resources supporting the results.

Authors are encouraged to deposit supporting materials in a trusted repository and provide a DOI, accession number, persistent identifier, or stable link.

Open access may be restricted for the following reasons:

  • privacy or confidentiality requirements;

  • conditions of ethics approval;

  • intellectual property rights;

  • legitimate commercial restrictions;

  • legal requirements;

  • national or public security;

  • third-party ownership;

  • justified technical limitations.

Where access is restricted, the Data Availability Statement must explain the reason and, where possible, how controlled access may be requested. Materials must not be described as openly available if they are unavailable or the links do not work.

Affiliations

An author’s primary affiliation should normally identify the institution where the main part of the research was conducted or principally supported.

If an author moved after the research was completed, the original research affiliation is retained and the new institution may be stated as a current address or secondary affiliation.

Affiliations must not be added to inflate institutional prestige or imply support that did not exist.

After publication, affiliations are normally retained as part of the historical scholarly record. A factual error may be corrected under the journal’s corrections policy, but a later change of employment does not ordinarily require a correction.

Author Identification

Authors are strongly encouraged to register with ORCID and provide their own ORCID identifier. It must belong to the relevant author and, where technically possible, be authenticated through the submission system.

Authors must not provide another person’s ORCID, false researcher identifiers, misleading scholarly profiles, or inaccurate contact information.

To protect submission integrity, the journal may verify an author’s identity, affiliation, institutional email address, ORCID record, and publication history where necessary.

Use of Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence tools, large language models, chatbots, and other non-human systems cannot be listed as authors. They cannot approve a manuscript, accept accountability, disclose competing interests, or respond to questions about research integrity.

Human authors remain fully responsible for:

  • the accuracy and originality of the manuscript;

  • verification of facts, calculations, references, data, and generated content;

  • protection of confidential and personal information;

  • compliance with copyright and intellectual property requirements;

  • appropriate disclosure of AI use.

Uses that require disclosure must be described in accordance with the journal’s Policy on the Use of Artificial Intelligence. AI-assisted language editing does not confer authorship on the tool or remove the human authors’ responsibility for the final text.

Authorship Changes Before Acceptance

Adding or removing an author, or changing author order after submission, is exceptional and should, where possible, be requested before acceptance.

A request must include:

  • a clear explanation of the reason;

  • an updated Author Contributions statement;

  • written consent from all existing authors;

  • written consent from the person being added or removed;

  • confirmation from the corresponding author that all authors approved the change.

The journal may contact authors separately to verify consent and suspend the editorial process while the request is considered. If the justification or consent is unclear, the Editor-in-Chief may approve the change, reject it, or refer the matter to the relevant institution.

No author is removed without due consideration of all affected parties.

Authorship Changes After Acceptance

Authorship changes after acceptance are strongly discouraged and considered only in exceptional and adequately documented cases. Publication may be delayed while the request is evaluated.

A desire to occupy a different position, gain academic credit, or add a senior colleague who made an insufficient contribution is not a valid reason for a change.

All affected authors must provide written consent, and the change must be approved by the Editor-in-Chief before publication.

Authorship Changes After Publication

A justified post-publication authorship change may require:

  • publication of a formal correction;

  • updating article metadata;

  • notifying the DOI agency, indexing, and registration services;

  • institutional investigation where the authors cannot agree;

  • retraction in serious cases involving fraudulent or misleading authorship.

The original publication record is preserved, and changes are documented transparently unless privacy or safety concerns justify a different approach.

Author Name Changes

An author may request an update to their name after publication. The journal does not require disclosure of the personal reason or legal documentation unless identity verification is reasonably necessary to protect the integrity of the scholarly record.

Where technically and legally possible, the journal may update the online article, publication files, metadata, information supplied to indexing services, and the author profile.

At the author’s request, a name change may be made without a public correction notice where privacy or safety concerns justify this approach.

Deceased or Incapacitated Authors

An individual who met the authorship criteria before death or incapacity may remain an author.

If an author dies before submission or publication:

  • the corresponding author must notify the journal;

  • the deceased author’s contribution must be clearly described;

  • the remaining authors must confirm, on the available evidence, that the individual met the authorship criteria;

  • the circumstance may be stated in a note;

  • the deceased author must not be described as having approved actions taken after death.

Where an author loses the capacity to communicate, the journal considers the circumstances individually and may request information from co-authors, the institution, or an authorized representative. The Editor-in-Chief determines whether the available evidence is sufficient to retain authorship.

Confidentiality

Authors must handle confidential editorial information responsibly. They must not disclose an anonymous reviewer’s identity, confidential editorial correspondence, reports marked confidential, internal discussions, or protected information relating to another person.

The manuscript and editorial correspondence may be shared with co-authors and authorized contributors only to the extent necessary to prepare or revise the work.

Public posting of manuscripts is governed by the journal’s Preprint Policy. The existence of a preprint must be disclosed at submission.

Authors must not attempt to identify anonymous reviewers, contact them directly, or retaliate against persons suspected of having reviewed the manuscript.

Authorship Disputes

The journal is not authorized to determine independently the legal or factual ownership of scholarly contributions in a dispute among authors.

Where a dispute arises, the journal may:

  • suspend peer review, acceptance, or publication;

  • request written statements and contribution records from all parties;

  • require confirmation of the proposed author list;

  • advise the authors to resolve the matter through their institutions;

  • refer the matter to an institution, research integrity office, funder, or other competent body;

  • publish a correction, Editorial Expression of Concern, or retraction where necessary.

An unresolved dispute requiring institutional investigation must not be decided independently by editors. The journal may decline to continue processing the manuscript until the dispute is resolved.

Suspected Authorship Misconduct

Where guest, gift, ghost, purchased, coercive, false, or manipulated authorship is suspected, the journal may request:

  • a separate contribution statement from each author;

  • written confirmation from each author;

  • primary research records;

  • correspondence supporting the claimed contributions;

  • institutional confirmation;

  • information about professional writing assistance or third-party services.

Allegations are considered fairly and confidentially without presuming that misconduct occurred.

Actions may include rejection, correction, retraction, restrictions on future submissions, removal from an editorial role, or notification of the relevant institution.

External Standards

The authorship practices of Geliotekhnika are informed by:

  • COPE Core Practices;

  • COPE guidance on authorship, contributorship, changes to authorship, and author name changes;

  • CRediT Contributor Roles Taxonomy;

  • Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing;

  • DOAJ Guide to Applying;

  • Scopus requirements for publication ethics and malpractice statements;

  • Web of Science criteria concerning editorial quality and research integrity;

  • the journal’s Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement;

  • the journal’s Conflicts of Interest Policy;

  • the journal’s Policy on the Use of Artificial Intelligence;

  • applicable national legislation and internationally recognized standards of research integrity.

Policy Administration

This policy takes effect on the date of its publication on the journal’s official website and is reviewed periodically to maintain alignment with applicable ethical standards and the journal’s editorial practices.

Questions about authorship, requests to change the author list, authorship complaints, or reports of suspected authorship misconduct should be submitted to the Editorial Office at ftikans@uzsci.net.

Relevant matters are considered in accordance with the journal’s applicable policies and COPE guidance.

ISSN 0130-0997 (Print)
ISSN 2181-9963 (Online)