Authorship Criteria

Authorship Criteria

Jurnal Bina Mulia Hukum is committed to transparency, integrity, and accountability in scholarly publishing. Authorship credits each contributor’s intellectual work and makes them responsible for the published content. The journal follows the authorship guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), adapted to legal research.

1. Who Qualifies as an Author

A person may be listed as an author only if they meet all of the following criteria:

  1. They made a substantial contribution to the conception or design of the work, or to the collection, analysis, or interpretation of legal materials, data, or sources.
  2. They drafted the manuscript or critically revised it for important intellectual content.
  3. They approved the final version submitted for publication.
  4. They agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work, so that questions about its accuracy or integrity are properly investigated and resolved.

2. Contributors Who Do Not Meet the Criteria

Contributors who do not meet all four criteria should not be listed as authors. Their support should instead be recorded in the Acknowledgments section. Examples include:

  • providing funding or institutional support,
  • general supervision or administrative assistance,
  • proofreading, translation, or language editing,
  • technical help with data or source collection.

3. Corresponding Author

The corresponding author communicates with the journal throughout submission, review, and publication. The corresponding author must ensure that:

  • all co-authors meet the authorship criteria and have approved the final manuscript,
  • no one who qualifies as an author has been left out,
  • the order of authors has been agreed upon by all authors,
  • all journal requirements are met, including the originality statement, conflict-of-interest declaration, and copyright agreement.

4. Order of Authors

The authors jointly decide the order of authorship before submission. The order should reflect each author’s relative contribution to the work.

5. Changes to Authorship

Requests to add, remove, or reorder authors after submission must be submitted to the editor in writing. The request must explain the reason for the change and be signed by all authors, including any author being added or removed. The journal does not accept authorship changes after a manuscript has been accepted for publication, except in exceptional circumstances approved by the Editor in Chief.

6. Inappropriate Authorship

The journal does not accept the following practices:

  • Ghost authorship: omitting a person who meets the authorship criteria.
  • Gift or honorary authorship: listing a person who has not made a substantial contribution, for example on the basis of position, seniority, or personal relationship.
  • Guest authorship: adding a well-known name to improve the manuscript’s chances of acceptance.

If such practices are suspected, the journal will handle them according to COPE flowcharts. Outcomes may include rejection of the manuscript, retraction of the published article, and notification of the authors’ institutions.

7. Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence tools, including large language models, cannot be listed as authors. They cannot take responsibility for the work, approve the final manuscript, or be held accountable for its content. Any use of AI tools must be disclosed in accordance with the journal’s AI Policy.

8. Author Identity and Affiliation

Every author must provide their full name, institutional affiliation, and a valid email address. Authors are strongly encouraged to include an ORCID iD so that their identity can be verified and their scholarly record kept accurate.