Why are the ICMJE criteria important to academic authorship?
In order to make a substantial contribution, it’s clear that an author needs to actually do things that are crucial to a project (= subsequent research paper) by engaging in activities that represent an intellectual contribution. This means more than just following instructions or being told what to do.
Here are some examples of activities that comprise components of research activities (in no particular order), considered substantial contributions:
Developing the theory, or parts of the hypothesis, that underlie a piece of research and that then are used to guide analyses;
Designing the scope and direction of a study, including what data to collect and where;
Coming up with ideas that should be addressed in research or hypotheses to be tested and then guiding subsequent research;
Providing, collecting, or analysing data. One might argue that simply following instructions does not constitute a significant contribution in this respect, or;
Contributing to the writing, either in draft or revision stage.
Source: https://www.cwauthors.com/article/Ethics-in-academic-publishing-Understanding-gift-authorships