Authorship is both academic credit and scholarly responsibility. The order of authorship must 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.

CEEJ applies recognized publication ethics principles while considering the multidisciplinary nature of community engagement and community service research.

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

These criteria are informed by the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), adapted to the scope of CEEJ.

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.
• Facilitating access to a community, school, institution, or research location without further qualifying contributions.
• Providing routine technical assistance, data collection, proofreading, or language editing alone.
• Providing equipment, facilities, 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 CEEJ 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.
• Communicate editorial decisions and revision requirements to all co-authors.
• Ensure that requested authorship changes are transparently communicated and supported by the agreement of all affected authors.

CEEJ 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.

For community engagement articles, contributions may also include program development, community coordination, implementation, monitoring, evaluation, and impact assessment. Contribution statements must accurately represent the work performed by each individual.

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. CEEJ 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, CEEJ 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 CEEJ's AI policy and applicable 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. CEEJ 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, CEEJ 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 Community Education Engagement Journal (CEEJ), 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.