This policy governs the use of artificial intelligence (AI), generative artificial intelligence, large language models, chatbots, and other AI-assisted technologies in manuscripts submitted to this journal.
It applies to authors, reviewers, editors, editorial board members, and other parties involved in manuscript submission, peer review, editorial decision-making, and publication.
The journal supports the responsible use of AI to enhance research and scholarly communication. However, AI must remain an assistive tool. Human authors, reviewers, and editors remain responsible for verification, professional judgment, decision-making, and accountability.
AI tools cannot be listed as authors or co-authors.
AI cannot meet the requirements for authorship because it cannot:
All named authors must be human and must meet the authorship criteria adopted by the journal.
Authors may use AI-assisted technologies for legitimate supporting activities, including:
The use of AI does not reduce the authors' responsibility for the submitted manuscript.
Authors must independently verify all AI-assisted content, including facts, arguments, quotations, statistics, references, DOI numbers, URLs, legal provisions, research data, code, images, and conclusions.
AI-generated output must not be treated as a primary or authoritative source when the original source is available.
Authors must disclose the use of AI when the technology materially contributes to:
Basic spelling, grammar, and formatting assistance that does not alter the scientific substance of the manuscript does not normally require disclosure.
When uncertain, authors are encouraged to disclose the use of the AI tool.
When disclosure is required, the declaration must state:
The declaration should appear in a separate section entitled Declaration of AI Use, placed before the References.
Example Declaration
“During the preparation of this manuscript, the authors used [name and version of AI tool] for [specific purpose] in [section or stage of the research]. The authors reviewed, verified, and revised all outputs generated by the tool. The authors take full responsibility for the accuracy, integrity, originality, and content of the published article.”
When AI forms part of the research method, its use must also be described in the Methods section in sufficient detail to allow scientific evaluation and, where possible, reproducibility.
Authors must not use AI to:
Such conduct may be treated as a breach of publication ethics.
Authors are responsible for accessing, reading, and verifying every source cited in the manuscript.
AI-generated references must not be included unless the authors have confirmed that:
An AI tool must not be cited as an author.
If AI-generated output is itself the object of research, the authors must explain how the output was generated, documented, and analysed.
AI-generated or AI-modified images, figures, audio, video, and synthetic data may only be used when they are scientifically relevant, ethically justified, and clearly disclosed.
Authors must:
AI must not be used to alter research images or data in a manner that changes, obscures, removes, or fabricates scientific information.
The editor may request original files, metadata, prompts, code, or other supporting records when necessary.
Authors must not upload personal data, sensitive data, confidential documents, unpublished manuscripts belonging to other parties, patient or client information, restricted research data, or other protected materials to public AI platforms without an appropriate legal basis, authorisation, and adequate security safeguards.
Before using an AI service, authors should examine:
The use of AI must comply with applicable research ethics requirements, data-protection laws, confidentiality obligations, and institutional policies.
Submitted manuscripts and peer-review materials are confidential.
Reviewers must not upload manuscripts, supplementary files, author information, or editorial communications to an external AI service unless the journal has expressly authorised the service and appropriate confidentiality and data-protection safeguards are in place.
Reviewers must personally read and evaluate the manuscript. AI must not replace the reviewer's scientific judgment or generate the final recommendation on the reviewer's behalf.
Any authorised use of AI during peer review must be disclosed to the editor.
The reviewer remains fully responsible for the accuracy, fairness, validity, and content of the review report.
Editors and editorial staff must protect the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts.
AI may assist with administrative and preliminary screening activities, such as:
AI must not be the sole basis for:
All consequential editorial decisions must be made and documented by a responsible human editor.
The journal does not use an AI-detection score or percentage as the sole evidence that a violation has occurred.
AI-detection tools produce probabilistic results and may generate false positives or false negatives. Their results may therefore only serve as preliminary indicators requiring further human examination.
An investigation may consider:
Authors will be given a reasonable opportunity to respond before an adverse editorial decision is made.
When the use of AI is inconsistent with this policy, the journal may take proportionate action, including:
Failure to disclose minor language assistance will not automatically be treated in the same manner as fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, peer-review manipulation, or deliberate deception.
Editorial actions will follow the journal's publication ethics procedures and provide the affected party with a reasonable opportunity to respond or appeal.
The fundamental principle of this journal is:
“AI may assist. Humans must verify. Humans must decide. Humans remain accountable.”
Authors are responsible for the submitted and published content. Reviewers are responsible for their review reports. Editors and the publisher are responsible for editorial decisions and for maintaining the integrity of the scholarly record.
Because AI technologies and scholarly publishing standards continue to evolve, this policy will be reviewed periodically and may be updated when necessary.
Effective date: [insert date]Last updated: [insert date]
This policy is informed by the recommendations and guidance of the following organisations:
Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)Committee on Publication Ethics
International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE)ICMJE Recommendations on Artificial Intelligence
World Association of Medical Editors (WAME)WAME Recommendations on Chatbots and Generative Artificial Intelligence
UNESCOGuidance for Generative AI in Education and Research