What qualifies someone to be an author? The International Council of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) recommends the following criteria: 

• Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
• Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND
• Final approval of the version to be published; AND
• Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

If a person does not meet these qualifications, they can be mentioned in the acknowledgements section of the paper, but should not be added to the author list.

Once you have decided who is qualified to be listed as an author, you need to decide what order to list the authors in. This question can lead to fierce debate because some positions, such as first author (or, in some fields, last author) are perceived as more important and prestigious, and it can be easy to get caught up in who "earned" those spots and made the most important contributions. Make sure the conversation focuses on the work and not on seniority--it can be discouraging for a student who did serious work on the project to be pushed down (or even off) the list in favor of gift authorship for famous researchers not even involved in the project... and it's also unethical.

There is no single convention, but it is common to list authors either by order of contribution or alphabetically. Whatever method you choose, make sure everyone agrees on the author order before you submit.

It is common for journals to ask you to transfer the copyright of your article in exchange for publication. This means that you may have to request permission or even pay if you want to reuse your journal article in the future. If you have any particular things you want to keep (such as the right to use your work in a lecture or the ability to post a copy on your personal website), ask before signing anything if that was an option.

Many journals are moving to Creative Commons licenses that allow you to retain your copyright, but also grant others blanket permission to reuse your work in certain ways. If the journal you will be publishing in uses a Creative Commons license, make sure you understand what others will be allowed to do with your work and whether this is what you want.

Two things to remember: 

1. You can only submit to one journal at a time
2. The process will take much longer than you think

The video below shows a journal editor talking about what to expect from the submission process and how to maximize your chances of getting accepted the first time.

• If your study involves animal research, have you gotten IACUC approval?
• If your study involves human subjects (including surveys, chart reviews, and biological samples), have you gotten IRB approval?
• Is the article you are writing within the scope of the journal?
• Do you have an abstract detailing the background, methods, and results of your research within the word limits set by the publisher?
• Have you explained your methods clearly enough that another researcher could replicate your study?
• If you have included any figures and tables, are they legible and at a suitable level of resolution?
• Have you had a colleague review the paper to ensure it is rigorous, makes sense, and flows logically?
• Is your manuscript free of grammatical errors?
• Have you cited all the resources you used in writing your manuscript in the citation style used by the journal?
• Did you follow all the formatting instructions listed by the journal (e.g., font, spacing, word count, citation style, formatting of figures, document type) EXACTLY?

Often, your best efforts will not be enough to get your work accepted by a particular journal, and you will need to rewrite and resubmit your manuscript to either the same journal or a different one. Here are some decisions you could receive:

1. Desk reject. The editor or editorial assistant rejected the manuscript without sending it out for peer review. This often occurs if the article is out of the journal's scope, the writing quality is poor, the topic is not sufficiently novel or significant, or there are errors or scientific flaws obvious to a lay person. If your manuscript has been desk rejected, you will usually know fairly quickly. You should look for a different journal to publish in and take a serious look at your manuscript to see if it needs substantial rewriting.
2. Post-peer review rejection: no resubmission. The peer reviewers rejected your manuscript, usually because of scientific flaws or because it does not meet the journal's standards for significance. You will not be able to resubmit your manuscript to this journal; you will need to look for somewhere else to publish.
3. Post-peer review rejection: may resubmit. The peer reviewers rejected your manuscript as currently written, but believe it shows promise and would be willing to reconsider it with substantial enough rewrites to make it a new submission. If you receive this decision, you can rewrite the manuscript and resubmit it to either this journal or a different one.
4. Revisions required. The peer reviewers require revisions (ranging from major to minor), but if you make them, your manuscript is likely to be accepted at this journal.

The video below offers advice on effectively responding to reviewers when resubmitting to the same journal: