Implementing Quantitative Declarations of Authorship Contribution: A Call to Action

Problems due to limitations of the status quo in authorship declaration across scientific fields are accumulating at an accelerating pace. Here we highlight the importance of having a mechanism to capture quantitative author contribution. That can be achieved using a range of Intellectual Activities (IAs) as recommended by International Committee for Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), Contributor Roles Taxonomy (CRediT), or Quantitative Uniform Authorship Declaration (QUAD). Eventually, this quantitative assessment can be used to evaluate the impact of the author using the Author Performance Index (API) to avoid any superfluous credit assignment. Irrespective of the field and the online submission tool of a journal, this approach will enable the scientific community to devise a new paradigm of an objective and precise evaluation of the impact of an author in scientific communications. Not unlike climate change, adapting is inevitable, and the sooner we act the more trouble we stave off.