A Journal may request or require Co-Authors to confirm their Co-Authorship of a manuscript. They may also request Co-Authors to register (create a user account) on the Journal site.

Some journals may send Co-Authors an email notification which includes deep links to verify Co-Authorship. For these journals, you will need to contact the corresponding author for submission status updates.

Alternatively, you may be requested to register/login to confirm your Co-Authorship.

• Doing this may allow you to view the status of the submission, depending on the Journal configuration. See View Submission status below.
• Doing this will allow you to indicate whether you are available to review for the Journal.

What happens if you decline?

If you did not co-author the submission, then the letter will instruct you to contact the corresponding author to resolve the issue with them before the submission proceeds further.

What happens if you verify?

If you verify that you contributed to the manuscript, you may be asked for more information depending on the Journal configuration. This additional information is optional.

• You may be asked to confirm the type of contribution you made, based on the roles defined in the CRediT Taxonomy.
• You may be asked to verify your ORCID ID, which then will be linked to the published manuscript if it is accepted. See Why should I integrate my submission system account with ORCID?
• You may be asked to answer questions related to the submission.

  • If the Co-Author does not answer all questions at the initial viewing, responses can be saved (click Save for Later). Then the user may access the questionnaire again later by using the same deep link in the notification email.
  • Co-Authors who have verified their contribution, registered on the Journal site, and completed the questionnaire may view (but not edit) their own answers by clicking the View Questionnaire Responses link in the Submissions Being Processed or Revisions Being Processed folder.

What if you made an error in response?

If you have clicked one of the links in error, your response can be reset. Contact us via the "Chat" button to request to have the verification email resent to you with new links.

View submission status

Where the Co-Author is asked to register/log in to verify their co-authorship, once they have done so they can view the status of the submission (read-only) as it goes through the editorial process by logging in to the Journal site.

The submission appears in any one of several folders on the Author Main Menu, depending on its status in the editorial process. These folders are:

• Submissions Being Processed
• Revisions Being Processed
• Submissions with a Decision

The Authorship column shows the user's relationship to the submission: Corresponding Author or Other Author. Editorial status and related dates may appear (depending on the Journal configuration).

For journals which send Co-Authors an email notification which includes deep links to verify Co-Authorship, you will need to instead contact the corresponding author for submission status updates.

Depending on the Journal configuration, the Corresponding Author may have permission to view their Co-Authors’ verification statuses. If applicable these can be accessed via the Author Status link (see Author Details page) in the Action column in the following folders:

• Submissions Sent Back to Author
• Submissions Being Processed
• Revisions Sent Back to Author
• Revisions Being Processed
• Submissions with a Decision

Each Author's verification status appears in the Confirmed? column. Possible status terms are:

• No Response: Author has not responded to the email.
• Yes: Author confirmed contribution.
• Declined: Author declined contribution.
• Confirmation Not Requested: No verification email was sent.
• Partial Questionnaire Saved: Author began answering questionnaire but did not finish/submit.

Manage Co-Author verification process

The Journal may also allow Corresponding Authors to manage the Other Author verification process. Corresponding Authors may see an Options column on the Author Details page. Links in this column allow the Corresponding Author to:

• Resend Letter: Click the link to resend the Journal's letter requesting authorship verification.
• View Questionnaire Responses: Click the link to open a pop-up window which displays the questionnaire completed by the Other Author.

In addition, Corresponding Authors may be given permission to update Other Author email addresses directly from the Author Details page. Corresponding Authors may see an Edit link under each Author's email address.

If a Co-Author notification email bounces back to the Journal from the email provided by the Corresponding Author, a Journal may redirect the notification to the Corresponding Author. This informs the Corresponding Author that the Co-Author's email address entered on the Add/Edit/Remove Authors step is incorrect. Corresponding Authors with permission to update email addresses of Co-Authors can do so using the Edit link.

Changes to Author list

Only the Corresponding Author may request changes to the Author List after submission; these changes much be approved by the editor.

Changes to the Author List between the previous version of the submission and the current revision are noted on the Author Details page. Red informational text next to an Author record indicates what kind of change was made. Possible change messages are:

• New
• (Former Corresponding Author)
• (New Corresponding Author)
• (Former Order: #)

Red text persists until a new revision is submitted. An Added in Revision column appears in the Co-Author grid, indicating during which revision the Co-Author was added. A Removed Authors section shows Authors that have been removed from the submission, information about when they were removed, and whether they had previously verified Co-Authorship on the submission.

What copyright notice will appear on the article?

This will be determined by the status selected by the Corresponding Author upon completing the publishing forms that are sent out if the article is accepted.

I am a US government contractor and I am not authorized to sign an agreement, I need a separate agreement.

Authors or their laboratories who are US government contractors and are not authorized to sign may contact us directly to request an agreement if the article is accepted for publication. The request can be made by forwarding the details of the article to us by email.

The article is a work made for hire and I am not authorized to sign an agreement, I need a separate agreement.

When the article is a work made for hire and the author is not authorized to sign on behalf of their employer, the author can contact us directly to request an agreement if the article is accepted for publication. The request can be made by forwarding the details of the article to us by email.

I receive a deep link error when I click on the link in the e-mail

I receive an invalid link error

I have logged in but am unable to see my co-authored submission