Sole Author, Lead Author, Co-Author, Contributor, Collaborator

Under the policy of the PanAfrican Journal of Governance and Development, the author means a researcher who carries the entire work on his/her own without the help of anyone. He/she is the principal and only investigator in the research. Suppose the work is supervised by the principal supervisor/advisor or co-supervisor/advisor. In that case, they can be included under co-authorship, and the Principal Investigator will be assigned as Lead Author. Misunderstandings arise when multiple researchers/scholars carry out the research with more or less significant involvement. At this time, a conflict of interest of authorship arises to determine the Lead Author, Co-Author, Contributor, and Collaborator. The journal policy clearly defines how to resolve conflicts of interest to avoid academic misconduct.    

Sole Author: A research work that is solely conducted by one researcher.

Lead Author: The lead author is the principal investigator who has contributed substantially to the conception or design of the research or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data; who has drafted the research, revising the research critically; who has finally approved the quality of the research to be published; and who has taken the responsibility of authenticity, accuracy, and integrity of any part of the research including the ethical guidelines.  

Co-Author: The co-author is the one who contributed significantly to the editing part, where editable accessibility further enriches the quality of the research provided all co-authors are aware of those areas of editing/changes or modification. In the case of a Master's or Ph.D. thesis, the co-authors will be all those who work as advisors or co-advisors. The PanAfrican Journal of Governance and Development (PJGD) is APC-free, so there is no question of sharing the cost of publication. Furthermore, clarifying the roles and responsibilities of the Lead Author and Co-Author made it easier to avoid the authorship conflict. In simple terms, the lead author creates the core idea of the research title while the co-author supports the collaboration of the idea. The lead author is responsible for conducting and documenting the research, while the co-author enriches the document by facilitating the substantial information or content. The primary accountability of the research for its authenticity and accuracy goes to the lead author, while the substantial content goes to the co-author. It is the lead author who generally takes the responsibility of the corresponding author for the publication of the manuscript. The corresponding author may be the manuscript's co-author to communicate with the journal's editorial team. In this case, the co-author cannot be considered as the lead author. The change of authorship is not allowed as per the policy of the PanAfrican Journal of Governance and Development (PJGD) once the manuscript is submitted for consideration. If such a situation arises, the corresponding author has to withdraw the manuscript and resubmit it for the next issue of the publication. The lead author took the responsibility of reviewing and correcting the manuscript on behalf of all the co-authors while the co-author agreed to make amendments.   

Contributor: The contributor roles can be at any given point of the manuscript development process like conceptualization, data curation, interpretation, formal analysis, funding acquisition, research and investigation process, design of methodology, coordination of research activity, visualization, and writing. Once contributed at any point of the manuscript development process, the name of the contributor will be taken into account.

Collaborator: The collaborator is a participant who is self-motivated, reliable, and accountable. He/she shares the work with the lead author and co-author to contribute his/her expertise, ideas, and skills to the manuscript. He/she needs to be open to feedback and willing to improve the quality and efficiency of the manuscript and meet the submission deadline.