Authorship order and credit: a practical guide to the CRediT taxonomy

A list of author names tells readers very little. Did the first author design the study or only run the experiments? Did the last author supervise, fund the work or write half of it? Conventions about author order differ between disciplines and countries, and a name on a paper can hide a great deal of variation in what each person did.

The CRediT taxonomy (Contributor Roles Taxonomy) was created to make contributions visible. It is now a formal standard, ANSI/NISO Z39.104-2022, and many publishers ask authors to submit a contribution statement using its roles. This guide explains the 14 roles, how they relate to authorship order, and how to use them in your own collaborations.

What CRediT is, and what it is not

CRediT is a controlled list of 14 roles that describe the kinds of work that go into a research output. Each contributor can be assigned one or more roles. It is used to describe who did what.

It is important to understand what CRediT does not do:

• It does not decide who qualifies as an author. That is still governed by journal policies and field norms, such as the ICMJE criteria used widely in medicine and the life sciences.
• It does not set the order of authors.
• It does not weigh one role as more valuable than another.

In other words, CRediT complements authorship rules rather than replacing them. Some contributors who hold a CRediT role, for instance someone who only provided resources, may be acknowledged rather than listed as authors, depending on the journal’s policy.

The 14 CRediT roles

1. Conceptualization: ideas; forming the overarching research goals and aims.
2. Data curation: managing, annotating and maintaining research data for initial use and later reuse.
3. Formal analysis: applying statistical, mathematical, computational or other formal techniques to analyse data.
4. Funding acquisition: obtaining the financial support for the project.
5. Investigation: carrying out the research, such as performing experiments or collecting data and evidence.
6. Methodology: developing or designing methods and models.
7. Project administration: managing and coordinating the planning and execution of the research.
8. Resources: providing study materials, reagents, samples, instruments, computing resources or other tools.
9. Software: programming and software development, including writing and testing code.
10. Supervision: oversight and leadership of the research, including mentoring.
11. Validation: verifying that results and experiments can be reproduced.
12. Visualization: preparing figures and data presentation.
13. Writing – original draft: writing the initial draft.
14. Writing – review & editing: critical review, commentary and revision, at any stage.

The official spelling of the first role uses a “z” (Conceptualization), as do the standard role names, so keep them as written when a journal asks for them. Many implementations also let you mark the degree of each contribution as lead, equal or supporting.

How CRediT relates to authorship order

Author order still matters for hiring, promotion and funding in most systems, and it follows different conventions in different fields:

• First author is commonly the person who did most of the work and wrote the draft, especially in the sciences.
• Last author in many lab-based fields signals the senior researcher who supervised and often funded the project.
• Alphabetical order is the norm in some areas, such as parts of economics and mathematics.
• Single or small-team authorship is still common in law and the humanities, where order may carry less meaning.
• Equal contribution notes (co-first authors) are used where two people contributed similarly.

CRediT helps here because it gives everyone a shared vocabulary for the discussion. Instead of arguing over “who did more”, the team can list roles for each person and then apply its agreed rule for order.

Using CRediT in practice: a step-by-step approach

1. At the start, assign expected roles. When you plan the paper, write down which roles each person is expected to take, with lead, equal or supporting where useful.
2. Agree an order rule. For example: “Lead on investigation and original draft is first; lead on supervision and funding is last; others by size of contribution.”
3. Update at each stage. Roles change. Someone may take over the analysis or drop out of writing. Revise the table openly.
4. Confirm before submission. Circulate the final contribution statement and ask each person to confirm it in writing.
5. Submit it with the paper. Follow the journal’s format. Many ask for a short statement such as “A. Kumar: Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing – original draft. B. Rao: Formal analysis, Visualization, Writing – review & editing.”

A sample contribution table

For a three-person paper, a simple planning table might look like this, written as a list:

• Author 1 (doctoral scholar): Investigation (lead), Data curation (lead), Writing – original draft (lead).
• Author 2 (collaborator in another department): Formal analysis (lead), Software (lead), Visualization (lead), Writing – review & editing (supporting).
• Author 3 (supervisor): Conceptualization (lead), Supervision (lead), Funding acquisition (lead), Writing – review & editing (lead).

Under a common lab convention, that might lead to an order of Author 1, Author 2, Author 3. Seeing the roles laid out makes that order easy to justify.

Common pitfalls

• Treating CRediT as a scorecard. More roles do not automatically mean a higher position. The order rule, not a count, should decide.
• Listing roles nobody performed. A contribution statement is a statement of fact; overstating it is an integrity problem.
• Using it to justify guest authorship. Giving someone “Resources” or “Supervision” when they did nothing does not make them an author.
• Filling it in at the last minute. Assigning roles at submission time invites disagreement. Plan early.

Why it matters for early-career researchers

For doctoral scholars and students, CRediT makes work visible that author order can hide. If you did the data curation and analysis but are third author, a contribution statement records that. When you apply for positions, you can point to your specific roles. It also gives you a neutral, standard way to raise the question of credit with a senior co-author.

How CollabCite fits in

CollabCite is a network for finding co-authors by field and research interest, with verified member IDs. We encourage members to agree roles early, and our Integrity Policy and guides cover authorship basics. If you are looking for collaborators, you can join as a founding member.