Authorship and Contribution Policy

Jinnah Business Review (JBR) is dedicated to maintaining the highest ethical standards in scholarly publication. This policy establishes clear criteria for authorship, defines the responsibilities of all contributors, and mandates transparency in disclosing individual contributions. Its primary goals are to ensure that authorship is attributed fairly to those who have made substantial intellectual contributions and to prevent unethical practices such as ghost, guest, or gift authorship.

1.0 Criteria for Authorship

An individual may be listed as an author only if they have fulfilled all four of the following criteria:

a) Substantial Contribution to Conception or Design: Made a significant intellectual contribution to the research idea, study design, or theoretical framework; OR, contributed substantially to the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work.

b) Drafting or Critical Revision: Actively participated in drafting the manuscript or critically revising it for important intellectual content.

c) Final Approval: Provided final approval of the version of the manuscript to be published.

d) Accountability: Agrees to be accountable for all aspects of the work, ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

All individuals who meet these criteria must be listed as authors. Those who do not meet all four criteria should be acknowledged in the "Acknowledgements" section.

2.0 Author Order and Corresponding Author

a) Author Order: The sequence of authors shall be a collective decision of all co-authors. It should reflect the relative scientific or professional contribution to the research, where the first author is typically the individual who contributed the most significantly. The corresponding author is responsible for obtaining consensus on the author order from all co-authors prior to submission.

b) Corresponding Author Responsibilities: The corresponding author acts as the primary liaison between the journal, the co-authors, and the wider academic community. Their duties include:

I. Managing all correspondence with the JBR editorial office during the submission, peer-review, and production processes.

II. Ensuring that all listed authors have reviewed, approved, and agreed to the submission of the final manuscript.

III. Completing all mandatory journal forms (e.g., authorship statement, conflict of interest disclosure).

IV. Coordinating the revision process in response to reviewer comments, incorporating feedback from all co-authors.

V. Handling any post-publication communications, including inquiries and critiques.

3.0 Mandatory Contribution Statement

To promote transparency, every manuscript submitted to JBR must include a Contributor Roles Statement following the Acknowledgements section.

a) Authors are required to use the CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy) framework to specify the contribution of each author. The relevant CRediT roles for business research include:

I. Conceptualization

II. Data Curation

III. Formal Analysis

IV. Funding Acquisition

V. Investigation

VI. Methodology

VII. Project Administration

VIII. Resources

IX. Software

X. Supervision

XI. Validation

XII. Visualization

XIII. Writing – Original Draft

XIV. Writing – Review & Editing

b) Example of a Contribution Statement:

Author Contributions: A.Khan: Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing – Original Draft. B. Ahmed: Data Curation, Formal Analysis, Visualization. C. Shah: Supervision, Writing – Review & Editing. All authors have read and agreed to the final version of the manuscript.

4.0 Acknowledgements

Individuals who provided supporting contributions that do not qualify them for authorship should be listed in the Acknowledgements section with a brief description of their role. This may include:

a) Technical support (e.g., survey programming, data collection assistance).

b) Administrative or supervisory support that did not involve intellectual contribution.

c) Editorial or writing assistance that was not substantive.

d) Colleagues who provided helpful feedback on early drafts.

The corresponding author is responsible for securing permission from all acknowledged individuals before including their names.

5.0 Changes to Authorship

Requests for changes to authorship (addition, removal, or reordering) after the initial submission are strongly discouraged and will only be considered under exceptional circumstances.

a) Pre-Acceptance: Any requested change must be accompanied by a compelling justification and a signed statement of agreement from every author, including the individual being added or removed. The request must be sent to the Editor-in-Chief by the corresponding author.

b) Post-Acceptance: Changes to authorship are generally not permitted after a manuscript has been accepted for publication.

6.0 Authorship Disputes

The editorial board of JBR will not arbitrate authorship disputes. The responsibility for resolving any disagreements regarding authorship eligibility or order lies entirely with the submitting authors and their institution(s). The review process for the manuscript in question will be suspended until the dispute is resolved. If a resolution cannot be reached, the manuscript will be withdrawn from consideration.

7.0 Declaration of Generative AI in Manuscript Preparation

The use of Generative Artificial Intelligence (e.g., ChatGPT, Claude) and Large Language Models in the manuscript preparation process must be explicitly disclosed in the Acknowledgements section. Authors are entirely responsible for the content of their work, including any parts generated by an AI tool, and AI cannot be listed as an author.

a) Example Statement:

During the preparation of this work, the author(s) utilized [Tool Name and Version] to [Specify Purpose, e.g., improve language fluency and readability]. Following the use of this tool, the author(s) reviewed and edited the content as necessary and take full responsibility for the publication's content.

8.0 Compliance and Enforcement

Submission of a manuscript to Jinnah Business Review constitutes confirmation that all authors have read, understood, and consented to this policy. Violations of this policy will be considered serious ethical misconduct and may lead to:

a) Immediate rejection of the submitted manuscript.

b) Retraction of a published article.

c) A prohibition on future submissions from the involved authors.

d) Formal notification of the breach to the heads of the authors' institutions.

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This policy is informed by the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).