Tobias Constien

Tobias Constien

he/him

PhD Candidate

CRediT where CRediT is due.

2 minute read

Published:

Adding a CRediT statement to a manuscript can be one of the most satisfying experiences in the publication process. But it also, most often, comes at a time where you are done thinking. I made a tool to take thinking out of the process while still making sure that CRediT goes where CRediT is due.

Writing CRediT statements should be easier!

At the point, where you are in need of a CRediT statement, most likely you’ll already have gone through writing your 8,000 word manuscript, formatting according to the wims and wishes of the journal, and gone back and forth in the GoogleDoc comments section with all your co-authors where and how to place that comma. Or, more likely, you’ll have completely forgotten about it entirely, and are now at the point of submission and are trying to remember who did what and what does “Investigation”, or “Conceptualization” actually mean again?

This little CRediT Author Contribution Tool is something I have been meaning to create for a long time. It was one of those things at the bottom of my to-do list, which never got the proper time and attention. And yes, I did Google and found a few other websites that created something similar. Still, I quite like the structure and design of my tool, and, after all, none of the other sites have the names of my cats and my wife hidden in it.

It’s definitely not earth-shattering. Still, I think it’s one of those gadgets that’s worth bookmarking for future use and may help you down the line.

What are CRediT roles?

The CRediT taxonomy was first developed by Brand et al. (2015). It is a system that serves to identify the contributions of each author on a paper, so that those authors who did most of the heavy lifting, also get the acknowledgment that they deserve. CRedit roles are, for example, Conceptualization (i.e., developing research frameworks, tools, or experimental paradigms), or Investigation (i.e., performing the experiments, or data collection).The full list of roles and explanations can be found on the official CRediT website.

And what does this thing do?

It’s no rocket science (although it may be used in that context). In a two-step process, you (1) enter the names of all the authors on the paper, which you then (2) identify by their CRediT roles. The tool gives you short descriptors of applicable CRediT roles, so that you can make sure, you are actually checking the right boxes. When you are ready, you click “Create CRediT Statement”, and copy and paste the provided output into your document. Also, don’t worry: No data is collected here.

That’s all.

Is this useful? What else should be added? Let me know!

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