Latest modification in the authorship criteria released by the ICMJE

The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) has released the latest version of the “ Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals” in May 2023. An important change has been made in the authorship criteria.

ICMJE suggests that authorship should follow 4 criteria. In this update, criterion #2 was modified by the ICMJE. The original phrase “Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content” was changed to “Drafting the work or reviewing it critically for important intellectual content.” This alteration was made because some authors might interpret “revising” as requiring them to make modifications to previous versions of the manuscript in order to qualify for authorship, even if they agree with the content. The ICMJE believes that the new change better reflects the original intention of the criterion, which is that all authors must, at a minimum, critically review the manuscript for important intellectual content AND have the opportunity to make changes if necessary. Please read the latest version of the ICMJE recommendations at https://www.icmje.org/