Q: Is it possible to add new author during the revision process of manuscript?
The paper revision is in progress. Is it possible to add new author during the process of manuscript revision? Should I mention about adding this new author in the cover letter? Please give an example of how to write the cover letter to notify it.
During the revision process, often new experiments are conducted, or additional studies are undertaken to address the concerns of the peer reviewers. If including such extra analysis/experiments/study requires effort from additional contributor, then it is usually acceptable and recommended to credit the new contributor with appropriate authorship.
Usually journals do not have any restriction on adding new authors in the authorship list during the revision process. The cover letter submitted with the revised manuscript should clearly mention why the new author was added and what was the exact contribution of the new author in the revised manuscript.
In the cover letter, you may write something like ‘’To address the comment X from the reviewer Y regarding ABC, we conducted the following experiment [add details about the experiment]. This experiment was planned/executed/analysed by [add the name of the perosn you want to add as the author]. Therefore, in the revised manuscript we have decided to include [him/her] as a co-author of the paper. This inclusion was discussed with and has received consent from all the co-authors of the paper.”
Depending on the guidelines of the journal you also may need to provide signed consent from all co-authors approving the change in the authorship.
Suggested reading:
Authorship: An evolving concept
This content belongs to the Conducting Research Stage