Authorship Criteria

Vision: Journal for Language and Foreign Language Learning treats authorship as a form of academic credit that comes with responsibility and accountability for the integrity of the published work. Authorship must rest on a substantial scholarly contribution to the manuscript. It cannot be given on the basis of academic rank, institutional affiliation, seniority, funding, or general supervision alone.

1. Criteria for Authorship

Each person listed as an author must meet all four of the following criteria:

Substantial scholarly contribution: contributed substantially to the conception or design of the study, or to the collection, analysis, or interpretation of data (for example, learner texts, test scores, classroom observations, interview data, or corpus data).
Manuscript preparation: took part in drafting the manuscript or in revising it critically for important intellectual content.
Final approval: approved the final version of the manuscript submitted for publication.
Accountability: agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work and to make sure that any question about the accuracy or integrity of the research is properly investigated and resolved.

Anyone who meets the first criterion must be given the chance to take part in drafting, critical revision, and final approval, so that they can meet the remaining three.

2. Author Contributions

Every author is expected to make a meaningful intellectual contribution to the research and the manuscript. Authors should state their individual contributions clearly and make sure these statements reflect the work each person actually did.

Vision encourages open reporting of each author's role. Authors may use the Contributor Roles Taxonomy (CRediT) to describe their roles, such as conceptualization, methodology, data curation, formal analysis, investigation, writing (original draft), writing (review and editing), supervision, and project administration.

3. Responsibilities of the Corresponding Author

The corresponding author handles communication between the journal and all co-authors during submission, peer review, revision, and publication. The corresponding author must:

make sure that every listed author meets the journal's authorship criteria;
confirm that all authors have approved the submitted manuscript and agreed to submit it to Vision;
provide correct author names, affiliations, and contribution statements;
make sure that all required declarations are included where relevant, such as conflicts of interest, research ethics (including consent from learners, teachers, or institutions, and parental or guardian consent for participants under 18), funding, and the use of artificial intelligence (AI);
pass on editorial decisions and major revisions to all co-authors; and
make sure that all co-authors approve the final version before publication.

4. Author Order and Changes in Authorship

All authors should agree on the order of authors together, based on their relative scholarly contributions. The journal does not set a fixed rule for author order.

Any addition, removal, or reordering of authors after submission must come with a justification and written approval from every author affected, including anyone being added or removed. Requests go to the editorial office and need editorial approval. Changes in authorship must not be used to misrepresent contributions or to get around the journal's authorship criteria.

5. Contributors Who Do Not Qualify for Authorship

People whose contributions do not meet all four criteria should not be listed as authors. With their permission, their help may be recognised in the Acknowledgments section.

Examples include obtaining funding only, general supervision, administrative help, technical support, language editing, proofreading, translation services, and granting access to schools, classes, or participants for data collection without further scholarly involvement.

Honorary, guest, and ghost authorship are not allowed. Everyone who meets the authorship criteria should receive proper credit, and no one who falls short of them should be named as an author. For articles based on a student's thesis or dissertation, a supervisor may be listed as an author only if they meet all four criteria.

6. Ethical Compliance and Disputes

All authors share responsibility for the integrity of the submitted and published work. Concerns about authorship eligibility, unreported contributions, or improper attribution should be discussed openly among the authors.

If the authors cannot settle an authorship dispute among themselves, the journal may refer the case to the relevant institution or research organization for investigation. The journal may pause editorial processing until the dispute is resolved and take further action in line with its publication ethics policies.

7. Use of Artificial Intelligence

AI tools, including generative AI systems, cannot be listed as authors, because they cannot take responsibility or be held accountable for scholarly work. Authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, integrity, and proper attribution of everything they submit.

Any use of AI-assisted tools in preparing a manuscript, including language editing, paraphrasing, or translation, must be disclosed according to the journal's Generative AI Policy. Using such tools does not replace the intellectual contribution and accountability that authorship requires.

By submitting a manuscript to Vision, all authors confirm that the authorship information is correct, that every listed author meets the criteria above, and that the manuscript complies with the journal's ethical and publication requirements.