A CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy) author contribution statement is a standardized way to declare each co-author’s specific role in a research paper, and you write it by matching your team’s actual work to the 14 predefined CRediT roles, then listing each author’s name alongside their assigned roles in the manuscript’s “Author Contributions” section.
Step 1: Understand the 14 CRediT roles
Familiarize yourself with the official taxonomy. The roles are: Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Software, Supervision, Validation, Visualization, Writing – original draft, and Writing – review & editing.
Step 2: Map each author to their contributions
Go through your project timeline and ask each co-author what they actually did. Common patterns:
- The lead researcher often handles Conceptualization, Methodology, and Writing – original draft.
- A lab technician might only have Data curation and Investigation.
- The senior author typically covers Supervision, Funding acquisition, and Writing – review & editing.
Be honest and specific. Avoid giving everyone the same broad roles—journals increasingly check for inflated contributions.
Step 3: Write the statement in the correct format
Most journals follow the ICMJE style: list each author by initials, then their roles in parentheses, separated by semicolons. For example:
Author Contributions: J.S. conceived the study, designed the methodology, and wrote the original draft. M.T. performed the formal analysis and visualized the data. A.R. curated the data and validated the results. P.L. supervised the project and acquired funding. All authors reviewed and edited the final manuscript.
If an author contributed to more than one role, list them all. If two authors share a role, write “J.S. and M.T. contributed equally to the formal analysis.”
Step 4: Tailor to your journal’s requirements
Check the target journal’s author guidelines. Some journals ask for a full sentence per role, others accept a simple table. Many now require the statement at submission, not just in the final PDF. If your discipline uses a different taxonomy (e.g., some biomedical journals use a modified list), follow that instead.
Step 5: Review for accuracy and fairness
Before submitting, circulate the draft to all co-authors for sign-off. This prevents disputes later and ensures everyone agrees with their listed roles. Also confirm that the order of authors in the statement matches the paper’s byline.
If you’re managing multiple papers or a large team, WisPaper’s TrueCite can help verify that your contribution statements and citations align with journal formatting requirements—reducing the chance of a desk rejection over a small compliance issue.
