This policy sets out the journal’s position on the ethical and responsible use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and AI-assisted technologies in preparing manuscripts submitted for publication. Its purpose is to safeguard transparency, accountability, and the integrity of the scholarly record.

1. Authorship and Accountability

AI Cannot Be an Author. AI tools and AI-assisted technologies (e.g., Large Language Models, Generative AI) do not qualify for authorship because they cannot accept responsibility for the accuracy, integrity, or originality of a manuscript. Accordingly, no AI system or software may be listed as an author on any submission.

Authors’ Full Responsibility. Human authors retain full responsibility and accountability for all content in the manuscript, including any text, images, data, or analyses that have been generated, edited, or refined using AI tools. Authors must ensure the accuracy, integrity, originality, and ethical acceptability of the work and must double-check any statements, references, data, or figures produced with AI assistance.

Human Oversight Required. All AI use must occur under direct human supervision. Authors are required to critically review, edit, and, where necessary, revise any AI-generated material to ensure that it meets scientific, methodological, and ethical standards.

2. Transparency and Disclosure

Mandatory Disclosure. Authors must explicitly and transparently disclose any use of AI or AI-assisted technologies in preparing their manuscript.

What to Disclose. The disclosure should clearly state:

• Name of the AI tool(s) used, for example: ChatGPT (OpenAI), Bard (Google), Grammarly, GPT-4, Midjourney, etc.
• Purpose(s) of use, such as: language polishing, grammar correction, drafting specific sections (identify which sections), brainstorming, assistance with data analysis, image generation, and so on.
• Extent of AI involvement, including a brief explanation of how the tool contributed to the manuscript.

Where to Disclose. Disclosure of AI use should normally appear in one of the following places:

• Acknowledgements section – preferred for general writing or language assistance.
• Methods section – if AI was used in methodological procedures (e.g., data analysis, coding support).
• A dedicated “Declaration of AI Use” placed before the References section or in a footnote on the title page.

Example Disclosure Statements.

“Portions of this manuscript were drafted/edited/enhanced using [Name of AI tool, e.g., ChatGPT-4 (OpenAI)]. The authors used this tool for [specific purpose, e.g., improving grammar and clarity/drafting an initial version of the Introduction section]. All AI-generated content was thoroughly reviewed, edited, and validated by the authors, who take full responsibility for the final manuscript.”

“Figure X was generated with the assistance of [Name of AI tool, e.g., Midjourney v5]. The authors provided the prompts and modified the output to ensure accuracy and relevance.”

3. Permissible Uses (With Disclosure)

AI tools may be used for support in the following ways, provided that their use is fully disclosed as described above:

• Language and Grammar Refinement: Improving readability, clarity, spelling, grammar, and sentence structure.
• Drafting Support: Assisting with initial drafts of limited, non–research-critical sections (e.g., parts of the Introduction or Discussion for stylistic purposes), which must subsequently be carefully reviewed and revised by the authors.
• Brainstorming and Idea Generation: Helping to generate ideas, refine research questions, or organize the structure and flow of the manuscript.
• Data Analysis and Visualization Assistance: Supporting data processing, analysis, or the creation of figures and tables, only if the procedures are verifiable and reproducible by the authors. Any such use must be described in detail in the Methods section, including tools used and validation steps.
• Summarization of Literature: Aiding in summarizing existing literature, with the strict requirement that authors confirm the accuracy of the summaries and provide proper citations to all original sources.

4. Prohibited Uses

The following uses of AI and AI-assisted technologies are strictly forbidden:

• Generating Fictitious Content: Producing fabricated data, nonexistent results, or false references/citations.
• Plagiarism: Presenting AI-generated text as original human work without appropriate acknowledgement, or using AI outputs that depend on existing intellectual property or datasets without proper attribution.
• Replacing Human Intellectual Contribution: Delegating core intellectual tasks of research to AI, such as formulating original hypotheses, designing experiments, interpreting novel results, or drawing original scientific conclusions.
• Violating Confidentiality: Reviewers and editors must not input confidential manuscript material (e.g., submissions under review) into public or non-secure AI systems, as this may breach confidentiality, copyright, and the integrity of peer review.
• Misrepresentation of Research: Using AI to intentionally mislead readers about methods, data, analyses, results, or conclusions.

5. Consequences of Misuse

Any failure to comply with this policy on the ethical use of AI and AI-assisted tools constitutes a serious breach of publication ethics and may lead to one or more of the following actions:

• Rejection of the manuscript under review.
• Retraction of a published article.
• Prohibition of the author(s) from future submissions to the journal.
• Notification of the author(s)’ institution, funding bodies, and/or relevant ethics or professional committees.

This policy will be reviewed periodically and updated as AI technologies evolve and as ethical standards in scholarly publishing continue to develop.