What does “Methodology” mean in CRediT?

Methodology is one of the 14 roles of CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy), published as the ANSI/NISO Z39.104-2022 standard. NISO (National Information Standards Organization) defines it as “Development or design of methodology; creation of models.” It describes the role as selecting or adapting techniques so that data collection, analysis and interpretation are sound and fit the study’s goals and capacities.

NISO’s examples include designing methodologies and frameworks for quantitative or qualitative work, setting the search strategy and criteria for a systematic literature review, and deciding the study design: how participants are selected, which materials and settings are used, the characteristics of the data, and how data are collected, measured and analyzed.

Conceptualization sets what the study asks; Methodology sets how it will be answered. Investigation carries out the planned methods, and Formal analysis applies the analysis techniques to the data. The NISO definitions overlap on models: Methodology includes the creation of models, while Formal analysis includes machine-learning models and computational simulations. The standard gives no tie-breaker, and one person may hold several roles, so a contributor who did both can list both. NISO’s examples are illustrative, not exhaustive.