Authorship in scientific publishing is the cornerstone of academic accreditation, career advancement, and accountability. There are different levels of authorship, each with their own academic, ethical, and administrative responsibilities. One of these authorship roles is the corresponding author. But who is the corresponding author, and why does this authorship role matter in scientific publishing? 

Who is the corresponding author? 

The corresponding author is the first point of contact for journals, taking primary responsibility for communication during the the manuscript submission, peer review, and publication processes.  

According to the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, key responsibilities of the corresponding author typically include: 

• Ensuring journal administrative requirements, such as providing details of authorship, ethics committee approval, clinical trial registration documentation, and disclosures of relationships and activities are properly completed and reported; 

• Responding in a timely way to editorial queries throughout the submission and peer review processes; 

• Responding post-publication to critiques of the work and cooperating with any requests from the journal for data or additional information. 

Other author roles 

In addition to the corresponding author, there are other key authorship roles in scientific publishing. These are the first author and senior/last author. 

The first author is responsible for much of the work throughout the research process. This includes writing initial manuscript drafts and conducting data analysis. Generally, the first author’s contributions carry the greatest intellectual weight in the research process. 

The senior/last author is traditionally the Principal Investigator (PI) of the research group. This role involves securing funding, overseeing the study, and providing or acquiring laboratory space. 

Why does authorship matter?

Defining authorship correctly during the research process is important for many reasons.

For one, defining authorship roles ensures that each author is accountable for their scholarly contributions. By clearly outlining who conducted what tasks or procedures in a study, there is no ambiguity around responsibility, and disciplinary action can be directed accordingly, if necessary.  

In the case of the corresponding author, it matters that this role is clearly defined because they are responsible for ensuring the completion of many administrative, ethical, and financial tasks on behalf of other individuals and organisations. In addition to the responsibilities listed previously, this includes signing publishing agreements on behalf of other co-authors and handling article processing charges (APCs). If any difficulties arise in relation to these processes, then the corresponding author can easily be contacted to resolve them. 

By defining authorship clearly from the beginning, any breaches of ethics or professional standards can be resolved, maintaining research integrity.  

Authorship guidelines 

To ensure that authors are correctly identified during the research process and post-publication, there are authorship guidelines to follow.  

MDPI follows the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) guidelines, which state that to qualify for authorship of a manuscript, authors must meet the following four criteria: 

• Make substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work, or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; 

• Draft the work or review it critically for important intellectual content; 

• Provide final approval of the version to be published; 

• Agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work by ensuring that questions relating to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved. 

Any change to the author list during the editorial process or after publication should be approved by all authors, including any who have been removed.  

For complete transparency, all submitted manuscripts should include an author contributorship statement that specifies the work of each author.  

Manuscript preparation beyond authorship 

Comfortable with authorship and need help with other areas of manuscript preparation?  

At MDPI Author Services, we specialise in helping researchers prepare their manuscripts for publication. Our Academic Editing Service provides subject-specific expertise and in-depth technical refinement during the manuscript preparation phase, helping to improve the scientific content and structure of the paper as the author is guided from pre- to post-publication. This service includes a review of your paper’s terminology. Click here for a free quote. 

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