Authorship and Contribution Criteria

In accordance with COPE standards and considering that an article is the result of prior research or academic work, there are two dimensions to consider in the contributions to an article: The research: In this dimension, contributions can be made (1) in the research design; or (2) in data acquisition; or (3) in data analysis and interpretation. The article itself: In this other dimension, contributions can be made (4) in drafting the article; or (5) in critically revising it for intellectually important content. 

In both dimensions, substantial or critical contributions are necessary. Therefore, an observation, a comment, or merely exchanging opinions, for example, do not qualify as substantial contributions. Additionally, it is not enough to contribute to only one of the dimensions, even if it has been done substantially. There must be contributions to both: research and article. In summary, to be part of the authorship of an article, it is necessary to: 

Have made significant contributions in at least one of the items listed from 1 to 3; have contributed to at least one of the items from 4 to 5; and have approved the final version of the article. If someone has met one or two of the conditions but not all three, then we can: a) mention that person in the acknowledgments; or b) cite one of their publications if it is directly related to the article and we have used ideas from it; but we cannot add them as a co-author.