On most papers, one author is marked with an asterisk and an email address: the corresponding author. It is easy to treat this as a formality handed to the senior person, but it is a genuine responsibility. The corresponding author is the journal's single point of contact and, in practice, the person who keeps the paper honest and moving. Take it on knowingly.
What ICMJE expects of the corresponding author
The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) defines the corresponding author as the one person who takes primary responsibility for communication with the journal. That covers submission, peer review and publication. Its Recommendations list the practical duties that come with the role:
- Make sure the journal's administrative requirements are complete: authorship details, ethics approval, trial registration documents and disclosures.
- Be available during submission and peer review to answer editorial queries promptly.
- Be available after publication to respond to critiques and to cooperate with requests for data or further information.
ICMJE asks every author, not only the corresponding author, to disclose their own relationships and activities. Chase those disclosures if the journal asks you to collect them. Never complete one on a co-author's behalf.
Who should take the role
The corresponding author does not have to be the most senior person — it should be whoever can reliably manage communication from submission through review and beyond. That means someone who will still be reachable after the paper publishes, and who has the standing to coordinate the co-authors. A shared or institutional email helps if a personal address may change.
Corresponding author, first author and guarantor are different roles
| Role | What it signals | Who decides |
|---|---|---|
| First author | Position in the byline; what that position means varies by field | The author team |
| Corresponding author | The contact point for the journal and for readers | The author team, within the journal's rules |
| Guarantor | Responsibility for the integrity of the work as a whole | Named by the author team, when the journal asks for one |
One person can hold all three roles, but none of them implies the others. If the journal asks for a guarantor, name one explicitly. Do not assume the corresponding author fills that role by default.
Before submission
Your job starts before the manuscript goes anywhere:
- Confirm that every named author qualifies for authorship and that no one who qualifies has been left off (see our guide on authorship and CRediT).
- Ensure all co-authors have seen and approved the final version.
- Check that affiliations, funding, and conflicts of interest are correct and complete.
- Confirm any required ethics approvals and consent are in place and stated.
- Record each author's name spelling, affiliation and ORCID iD exactly as they should appear, so the published metadata is right first time.
- Agree the author order in writing now. Changing it after submission means writing to the journal and explaining why.
A written sign-off is the simplest proof that the approval step happened. Send the final files to every co-author and wait for each reply before you submit. The wording below is a template you can adapt.
Subject: Final approval needed — [short title] for [journal]
Dear co-authors, attached is the version I intend to submit to [journal] on [date]. Please check your name, affiliation, ORCID iD, contribution statement and disclosures. Reply "approved" by [date], or send your corrections. I will not submit until every author has replied.
[your name]
During review
You are the relay between the journal and your team. That means acknowledging correspondence promptly, coordinating a single, coherent response to reviewers rather than a patchwork of separate replies, and making sure revisions are agreed by the co-authors before you send them. If a co-author disagrees with a change, that is yours to resolve before the paper goes back.
Merge the co-authors' comments into one point-by-point reply written in a single voice. Our guide on responding to reviewer comments shows the format. Forward the full reviewer reports to every author, not only the decision letter, so nobody revises blind.
Changes to the author list during review need particular care. The Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) publishes flowcharts for requests to add or remove an author, and a journal following them will ask for the reason and for agreement from all authors. Collect that agreement before you write to the editor. If a co-author has stopped replying, follow the steps for co-authors who will not respond rather than acting without them.
After publication
The role does not end at acceptance. As the listed contact, you will field questions from readers, handle requests for data or materials, and — if an error comes to light — coordinate a correction or, in serious cases, a retraction. Handling that openly and quickly protects both the record and your co-authors' reputations.
If you change jobs or leave research, tell your co-authors and agree who will answer queries in your place. Keep the data, code and correspondence, or confirm where the team stores them, so a data request years later can still be met.
A task list for the life of the paper
| Stage | Your task | Common error and its fix |
|---|---|---|
| Submission | Complete declarations, ethics and funding details | A co-author's disclosure left blank — ask each author directly |
| Review | Relay decisions and deadlines to all authors | Only the decision letter forwarded — share the full reports |
| Proofs | Check names, affiliations and author order | Proofs approved alone — give co-authors a short, fixed window to check their details |
| After publication | Answer reader queries and data requests | A contact address that lapses when you move — use one that will last, and keep your ORCID record current |
In short: the corresponding author is accountable for the integrity of the submission and reachable for the life of the paper. If you cannot commit to both, it is fairer to everyone to pass the role to someone who can.
Updated 17 September 2026: We expanded this guide with ICMJE duties, a role comparison table, a co-author sign-off template and a task list.