What does “Writing – review & editing” mean in CRediT?

Writing – review & editing 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 limits it to work done “by those from the original research group”, namely “critical review, commentary or revision – including pre- or post-publication stages”. NISO introduces the role as “providing significant feedback on the original draft of a manuscript”. Its example tasks are reading and copy-editing the text, polishing the language and adding comments and suggestions; changing the content in response to internal or external reviewers; and commenting on figures, tables and supplementary materials.

On language editing, NISO’s text says this much: copy-editing and refining language are listed as example tasks, but the role is framed as significant feedback on the draft, and the text does not say whether language editing alone is enough to claim it. Authorship is a separate question: the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) says that “writing assistance, technical editing, language editing, and proofreading” alone do not qualify a contributor as an author, and that such contributors should be acknowledged.