Generative AI Use and Disclosure
Generative AI tools may assist scholarly workflows, but authors remain responsible for the accuracy, originality, ethical compliance, and scientific claims made in their manuscripts.
Accountability and authorship
- Human authors are accountable for the entire content of a submission, including text, figures, analyses, data descriptions, and citations produced with AI assistance.
- Generative AI systems are not eligible for human authorship and must not be listed as manuscript authors.
- Authors should independently verify factual statements, references, quoted material, numerical claims, and AI-generated visual content before submission.
Responsible and transparent use
When generative AI makes a material contribution to drafting, analysis, code, images, or interpretation, authors should disclose the tool and explain how it was used. Ordinary spelling assistance can be distinguished from substantive scientific generation. Authors must not use AI output as a substitute for actual experiments, traceable evidence, or critical interpretation.
Research data and confidentiality
Do not upload unpublished manuscripts, reviewer reports, personal data, confidential research records, or restricted datasets into third-party tools without authorization and appropriate data-protection safeguards.
Unacceptable uses
- Fabricating observations, datasets, experiments, approvals, funding declarations, or bibliographic references.
- Using generated text to conceal plagiarism or evade originality checks.
- Submitting AI-generated images or analyses as real empirical results without a truthful account of their origin and validation.
- Presenting unverified AI recommendations as independent scientific findings.
Example AI disclosure statement
Editorial and reviewer use
Editors and reviewers should preserve confidentiality and assess any AI-assisted work against the same standards of originality, evidence, and sound methodology applied to other submissions.