This is a discussion I have been having with some contributors due to the death of one of our co-authors.
Since we still have a number of papers to publish, we want to do this as well. The ideal is obviously to leave this author as co-author. But how does the issue of copyright and signatures work? Do editors handle this smoothly? Do we need to have a family member's signature on copyright?
Dear Marcus Vinicius Alves ,
Unfortunately, this situation is not an exception.
The people are mortal, and the journals understand the situation.
Usually the corresponding author signs the copyright agreement
in such a case. See a recent example with a footnote describing
that the work was completed and submitted after the first author passed
away:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S002212361830449X?via%3Dihub
Dear Mr. Alves, if the co-author has contributed something for the work which you are publishing, definitely you should include the name whether he/she is alive or not. It is my personal opinion.
You can include the co-author's name, and make a comment at the end of the paper such as "XXX died on (date). Before that, we all initiated the present work and XXX fully contributed to sections (...) / the whole paper. " and then make a short "in memoriam" paragraph.
The editors should consider this very friendly, I think
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