Which Author Is Normally Responsible for Sharing Reprints

Ask any editor who handles reader email and the answer comes back fast: the corresponding author. ICMJE Recommendations, the international authorship-standards framework, define that person as the one who takes responsibility for communication with the journal during submission, peer review, and publication.

Point of contact: Corresponding author (ICMJE) · Authorship criteria: 4 conditions (ICMJE) · Reprint requests: Corresponding author (AK Journals)

Which author is normally responsible for sharing reprints of a publication with readers?

Reprint sharing is the most reader-visible job attached to the corresponding-author line, but it sits inside a much larger set of duties that all point to one person.

The pattern: the reprint task is not a standalone duty — it is one delivery point of a system that keeps the journal, the coauthors, and the published record attached to a single accountable node.

What the corresponding-author role really includes

Corresponding author is not the same thing as first author, and it is not an honorary title. ICMJE defines the role by duties: the person designated to handle journal communication for the group.

ICMJE’s four authorship conditions

• Make a substantial contribution to the work’s conception, design, data, or analysis and interpretation.
• Draft the manuscript or critically revise it for important intellectual content.
• Approve the final version to be published.
• Agree to be accountable for all parts of the work.

These four tests come from ICMJE’s authorship standards. Someone who passes all four should be an author; someone who does not should be acknowledged instead.

Administrative duties that travel with the title

• The corresponding author ensures that authorship details, ethics approval, trial registration, and disclosures are completed and reported. (ICMJE)
• The corresponding author receives the journal’s editorial correspondence and makes sure coauthors see it. (ICMJE)
• The corresponding author handles post-publication requests, including reprint and data-sharing requests. (AK Journals)
• The corresponding author must be able to act for the whole group, which is why journals require a real working author, not a symbolic name. (Cambridge University Press)

That is why the title cannot be handed to someone who did not see the manuscript. It comes with accountability.

Reprints, data, and reader requests

The phrase “sharing reprints” can sound old-fashioned, but the task is current: when a reader emails the contact address on the paper, the corresponding author is the person expected to respond. AK Journals describes the corresponding author as the designated point of contact for the published paper and says the same person may manage data-sharing requests after publication. A study in Quantitative Science Studies starts from the same place: the corresponding-author line identifies the author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Journals have also updated the language around sharing. A 2023 Springer article describes the corresponding author’s role in sharing-related responsibilities, and the e-BNR submission checklist adds a practical detail: if the team does not have reprints available, the title page should say so.

How reprint requests work in practice

1. Find the corresponding author’s contact details, which the manuscript lists with name, address, phone number, and email.
2. Send the reprint request to that contact address.
3. The corresponding author responds, providing a reprint or directing the reader to an open-access or posted version.
4. If the team does not have reprints available, the title page should state that, per the e-BNR submission checklist.

The implication: the corresponding author is the journal’s single accountable node for reader communication, which is why publishers keep pointing to that name.

Clarity check: what is confirmed and what is sometimes confused

Confirmed

• The corresponding author is the designated point of contact for a published paper. (AK Journals)
• The corresponding author handles reprint requests from readers. (AK Journals)
• The corresponding author may handle data-sharing requests after publication. (AK Journals)
• The corresponding author coordinates ethics approval, trial registration, and disclosure details. (ICMJE)
• Editors should send copies of all correspondence to every listed author, not just the corresponding author. (ICMJE)

What is sometimes confused

• The corresponding author is not automatically the first author; ICMJE defines the role by duties, not by author order. (ICMJE)
• A person named only in the acknowledgments is a contributor, not an author. (Cambridge University Press)
• Reprint requests are not just about the physical paper; the corresponding author also manages the reader-facing response, which is why the role carries administrative weight. (AK Journals)
• A listed corresponding author who has not met the four ICMJE conditions is not a legitimate author, even if the journal lists them. (Cambridge University Press)
• The corresponding author does not absorb all accountability — every listed author is accountable for the published work. (ICMJE)

Which of the following most accurately describes the practice of ghost authorship?

Ghost authorship happens when someone who made a substantive contribution to a manuscript is not named as an author. That omission hides the contributor’s role from readers, and when the unnamed contributor is paid by a sponsor, it can also hide a conflict of interest.

Which of the following is true regarding an acknowledgments section?

An acknowledgments section records non-author contributions. ICMJE says people who do not meet authorship criteria should be acknowledged, and their contributions should be specified.

That last point matters. The corresponding author is not simply the person who signs the submission system.

What the standards say in their own words

“The corresponding author is the one who takes responsibility for communication with the journal during manuscript submission, peer review, and publication.”

— ICMJE Recommendations (corresponding author and contributors)

“The corresponding author must be able to carry out responsibilities on behalf of co-authors and must meet authorship criteria for the article.”

— Cambridge University Press (corresponding author guidance)

Which of the following is true regarding the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors?

ICMJE issues recommendations for manuscript submission and reporting, defines four conditions that all authors must meet, and is the standard framework that journals frequently adopt in their author instructions.

Both statements point the same way: the corresponding author is a working role, not an honorific. That is why the reprint question has a clear answer.

Why this matters

Reprint sharing is a small test of a bigger job. The corresponding author is the person who carries the paper’s communication duties from the first submission to the last reader request, so if you are about to name one, choose someone who can handle both a peer-review inbox and a reprint request without dropping the ball.

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