What does “Writing – original draft” mean in CRediT?

Writing – original draft is one of the 14 roles in ANSI/NISO Z39.104-2022, the CRediT standard developed by the National Information Standards Organization (NISO). The definition covers writing the initial draft as part of preparing the published work, and it expressly includes substantive translation. NISO’s page describes two typical tasks: producing the first complete version of an article, and writing a large share of the original text, whether within one section or across several. It does not say how much translation counts as substantive.

NISO’s implementation guidance says the same role may go to several people, so authors who drafted different sections can each hold this one. The neighbouring role is Writing – review & editing, which NISO describes in terms of substantial feedback on a draft that already exists, including copy-editing, language refinement and revision after reviewers' comments. Drafting or critically reviewing the work is also only one of the four authorship criteria of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), so this role alone does not make someone an author.