Authorship provides both academic credit and scholarly responsibility. The order of authorship should be agreed upon by all authors and should reflect their respective contributions. Academic rank, institutional position, seniority, or personal relationships do not independently justify authorship.

BaEJ expects authorship decisions to follow recognized publication ethics principles and to accurately represent each author's contribution to the submitted research.

To qualify as an author, an individual must satisfy all four criteria below.

These criteria are based on the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).

The following contributions alone do not establish eligibility for authorship:

• Providing funding or financial support without substantive intellectual involvement.
• Holding a senior academic, administrative, or institutional position.
• Providing general supervision or administrative assistance.
• Providing routine laboratory assistance, technical support, or equipment without qualifying intellectual contributions.
• Collecting data, proofreading, or providing language editing alone.
• Providing facilities, materials, or logistical support without meeting the authorship criteria.

Individuals who contribute to the work but do not meet all authorship criteria should be acknowledged appropriately. Their contributions must be described accurately, and their permission should be obtained before they are acknowledged.

The corresponding author serves as the primary contact between BaEJ and the author team throughout submission, peer review, revision, and publication.

• Confirm that all listed authors meet the journal's authorship criteria.
• Obtain all authors' approval of the submitted manuscript and its final version.
• Ensure that all authors agree with the author order and corresponding author designation.
• Provide accurate author names, affiliations, contributions, and contact details.
• Disclose relevant conflicts of interest, funding sources, and ethical approvals where applicable.
• Communicate editorial decisions and revision requirements to all co-authors.
• Ensure that authorship changes are transparently communicated and supported by the agreement of all affected authors.

BaEJ encourages transparent reporting of individual contributions. Where appropriate, authors may use the Contributor Roles Taxonomy (CRediT) to describe contributions such as conceptualization, methodology, investigation, data curation, formal analysis, supervision, validation, visualization, project administration, and writing.

Contribution statements should accurately represent the work performed by each individual in the research, analysis, experimentation, educational intervention, or manuscript preparation.

Requests to add, remove, or rearrange authors after submission must be justified in writing and supported by the agreement of all authors affected by the change, including individuals being added or removed.

The corresponding author must submit the request and required confirmations to the editorial office. BaEJ may suspend editorial processing while the request is evaluated. Post-publication changes will be considered in accordance with the journal's publication ethics and correction policies.

Where necessary, BaEJ may request supporting documentation or refer unresolved authorship disputes to the relevant institutions.

Artificial intelligence (AI) tools, including generative AI systems, cannot be listed as authors because they cannot assume responsibility or accountability for scholarly work.

Authors who use AI tools in manuscript preparation must disclose such use in accordance with BaEJ's applicable AI policy and submission requirements. Authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, references, ethical compliance, and integrity of all submitted content, including content generated or assisted by AI tools.

AI assistance does not independently qualify an individual for authorship.

Authorship disputes should initially be addressed by the authors and their affiliated institutions. BaEJ does not determine authorship solely on the basis of academic rank or institutional authority.

When concerns arise about inappropriate authorship, undisclosed contributions, or inaccurate author declarations, the editorial team may request clarification, supporting documentation, or an institutional investigation. Depending on the circumstances and publication stage, BaEJ may suspend processing, reject a manuscript, request a correction, or take other appropriate action in accordance with its publication ethics policies.

By submitting a manuscript to Biology and Education Journal (BaEJ), the corresponding author confirms that all listed authors have made qualifying contributions, approved the submitted version, agreed with the author order, and accepted responsibility for the integrity of the work. The corresponding author also confirms that no eligible contributor has been improperly excluded and that non-author contributions have been acknowledged appropriately.