Policy of Authors

Policy on Author Order and Authorship Changes after Submission

The order of authors and the composition of the author team should be finalized before submission. The Libyan Journal of Dentistry recognizes, however, that legitimate reasons may occasionally require a change after submission. This policy sets out the conditions under which such changes are considered, in accordance with the COPE guidance on authorship changes.

General Principles

• Author order, the inclusion of every co-author, and the designation of the corresponding author should be agreed and confirmed in writing by all authors before submission.
• Any subsequent change is treated as a serious matter and must be fully justified.
• All requested changes are subject to the written approval of the Editor-in-Chief.

Requests before Acceptance

To request a change in authorship before a final acceptance decision, the corresponding author must submit a written request that includes: a clear description of the requested change; a detailed reason for the change; written confirmation from every author of the original submission that they agree to the change; and, where a new author is added, a signed Author Declaration Form and Author Contribution Form from the new author.

Requests after Acceptance and before Publication

Changes to authorship after a manuscript has been accepted but before it is published are permitted only in exceptional circumstances. The requirements set out in §5.2 apply. The Editor-in-Chief may, at their discretion, require additional verification or pause publication while the matter is considered.

Requests after Publication

Changes to authorship after publication are exceptional and are handled in accordance with COPE flowcharts. Approved changes are made by issuing a formal Correction notice, which is published as a separate citable record with its own DOI and is linked to the original article.

Disagreements between Authors

Where the authors cannot agree on a requested change, the editorial office cannot mediate the dispute. The matter must first be addressed within the authors' institution. The journal will pause editorial handling of the manuscript while the dispute is being addressed.

Author Name Changes

A change to a published author's name (for example, following marriage, divorce, gender transition, or change of religious or cultural identity) is handled separately and confidentially. The corresponding author must submit the request by email from their institutional email address to [email protected]. The journal will update the article's metadata, HTML, and PDF, and re-deliver the updated metadata to indexing services. No public correction notice will be published, and co-authors will not be notified.