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How to change (add/drop) authors after/during peer-review but before publication

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Changes to authorship after submission and during peer-review:

Please note that the following guidelines are for unpublished papers. For any paper that has already been published, please refer to this knowledge base article, https://support.jmir.org/hc/en-us/articles/115003350232-How-to-add-an-author-after-publication.

Authorship changes include addition and removal of authors or reordering.

First, please make sure that the new authors really fulfill ICMJE authorship criteria (otherwise they can just be added to the acknowledgement section), see Who should be listed as author and sign the publication form? (authorship criteria).  If the authors fulfill all 4 criteria (including having read and approved the final manuscript and being able to vouch for its integrity), please follow the steps below.

  1. If the paper is currently in Review Round 1 and has not received an initial editorial decision, you can edit the authors in your metadata form (How do I edit/correct/enter article metadata before publication?).
  2. After an initial editorial decision has been issued, we have to follow the COPE process (see links below).  For papers in Review Round 2+, any changes to authorship require a letter signed by all original (and additional) authors stating the reason for the change, and stating that all authors agree on the addition (or removal, or reordering) and the new authorship order. Please upload this letter signed by all authors as a supplementary file (for editorial eyes only) (How do I upload/add supplementary files (figures, Multimedia Appendix, additional material for reviewers/editors only) after submission?).

COPE flowcharts:

 

 

see also

 

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