Authorship Criteria and Contributions

All individuals listed as authors must have made a substantial contribution to the conception, design, execution, analysis, or reporting of the research. Annali Italiani di Chirurgia adheres to the four authorship criteria established by the ICMJE, which state that authorship should be based on the following conditions:

• Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
• Drafting the work or reviewing it critically for important intellectual content; AND
• Final approval of the version to be published; AND
• Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Annali Italiani di Chirurgia encourages authors to apply the Contributor Roles Taxonomy (CRediT) to clearly define each contributor’s specific role in a standardized and transparent way.

Example for Author Contributions: Author A conceptualized the research study. Author B and Author D performed the research. Author A and Author C analyzed the data. Authors B, C and D drafted the manuscript. All authors contributed to important editorial changes in the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. All authors have participated sufficiently in the work and agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

Corresponding Author

The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring the accuracy of the author list at the initial time of submission and for determining, in accordance with the authorship criteria, who qualifies as an author and who should be acknowledged as a contributor. When submitting a manuscript on behalf of a group, the corresponding author should specify the group name and explicitly identify which members can take authorship credit and responsibility for the paper.

The corresponding author must, on behalf of all co-authors, disclose any and all potential conflicts of interest. The corresponding author is responsible for all communication with the journal, including confirming that the materials presented in the article accurately reflect the sources and that all necessary permissions have been obtained. The corresponding author must also ensure that all authors have approved the final submitted version, any subsequent revisions, and the final accepted version of the manuscript. Additionally, the corresponding author must verify that all author disclosures, declarations, and data transparency statements are appropriately included in the manuscript. While the corresponding author will serve as the primary point of contact, all communications regarding key stages of the manuscript will also be copied to all listed authors.

Co-authorship

If multiple authors have contributed equally to a manuscript, co-first authors and co-corresponding authors are allowed. Authors may indicate this using a superscript symbol (^†) and include the statement "^†These authors contributed equally." below the list of affiliations. A detailed explanation should also be provided in the Author Contributions section. Note that no more than two authors may be designated as co-first authors or co-corresponding authors.

Authorship Changes

Changes in authorship, including additions, removals, or alterations, must be accompanied by a valid justification for editorial consideration. The request must include a statement of agreement, signed by all listed authors, confirming their consent to the change. Any new author must also explicitly state that they fulfill the journal’s authorship criteria.

Acknowledgments

Individuals who contributed to the article but do not meet the authorship criteria— such as those involved in funding acquisition, administrative or technical assistance, language editing, writing support, or manuscript proofreading—should be acknowledged individually or collectively in the Acknowledgment section rather than listed as authors.

Example for Acknowledgment: The authors express their sincere gratitude to Dr. ABC and Dr. ABB for authenticating the XXX samples, and to Prof. ACC for providing valuable suggestions on the manuscript.