One of the publisher’s journals has received a paper which lists a coauthor who died in 2022. The paper was incomplete at the time of his death but he and the corresponding author had planned to publish it together. The journal’s submission guidelines state that "each coauthor of this article is directly aware that this submission is being made in their name". The corresponding author is aware of this and has approached the publisher to explain the situation. They have also agreed to delay posting the paper on ArXiv until after the review process is completed just in case the list of authors must change.
The advice from COPE was as follows: "It is possible to list a deceased coauthor, using a footnote to explain that they died prior to publication, and giving the date of death. The corresponding author will need to declare the contribution of the deceased author to make it clear that they qualify for authorship.
However the extent of the changes made following the coauthor’s death is an important issue. The "version to be published" should not be a significant departure from the version the deceased co-author saw and participated in, or the question of whether the deceased co-author would have approved the published version or supported its conclusion would remain an open question."
More: https://publicationethics.org/guidance/case/author-deceased-prior-submission
