A Review of Writing Patterns of Authors' Participation in Research Articles and Presenting a Practical Pattern: Color-Coded Contributions

In this era, with the increase in research, the issue of ignoring the basic principles of research ethics, including determining the share of authors, is raised more than before. Different models for writing this section have been presented in reputable journals and the study endeavors to compare them to provide a practical model for writing participation in the guidelines of Persian language journals.

This review article uses English and Persian keywords: Writing Instructions, Authors' Participation Guide, Authors' Collaboration Statement, to review and compare how to write the Authors' Participation section on the website of medical publishers and instructions of reputable Persian and English journals in the databaseses such as Iranmedex, Google Scholar.

After reviewing websites and magazines and removing duplicates, twelve writing patterns were identified and compared in terms of different aspects. Finally, combining different patterns and taking the strengths of each, in compliance with ICMJE and COPE criteria, the use of visual patterns to facilitate its completion, the possibility of accurate monitoring of the order of names, and ease of understanding by readers, a pattern was offered. In this template, while providing definitions of ICMJE criteria, the authors' contribution in the predefined Excel file is determined and finally, the amount of participation is presented in a table with a color spectrum called "Color-Coded Contributions" with the ability to be included in the article.

The proposed model in this study, based on the strengths of previous models, has provided a simple application framework. Therefore, its use in journals to comply with authors' criteria, which is one of the important indicators in the field of research ethics, could be useful.