Policy on the Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI Policy)
This policy governs the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based technologies, including Large Language Models (LLMs), in the preparation and development of scientific manuscripts. The journal management is committed to maintaining academic integrity, originality, publication transparency, and the implementation of ethical principles in accordance with international standards established by COPE.
1. Authorship Criteria
AI technologies, including LLMs and other artificial intelligence-based tools, cannot be listed as authors or co-authors of scientific publications.
- Authorship carries ethical and academic responsibility for the content, data validity, and overall integrity of the publication.
- Human authors remain fully responsible for all aspects of the manuscript, including sections developed with the assistance of AI.
2. Permitted Use of AI
AI may be utilized in a limited and responsible manner as a supporting tool throughout the scientific writing process.
- Language Enhancement: improving grammar, spelling, sentence structure, clarity, and overall readability of the manuscript.
- Code and Data Optimization: assisting with code structure, scripts, or data formatting without altering the underlying logic of the research analysis.
3. Prohibited Use of AI
Ethical Violation: The use of AI to automatically generate the main substance of a scientific manuscript without meaningful intellectual involvement from the authors constitutes a violation of academic integrity.
- AI must not be used to automatically generate research hypotheses, interpretation of findings, scientific discussions, or research conclusions.
- Citations or references generated by AI must be independently verified and must not originate from unreliable or invalid sources.
- The manipulation of research data, images, or visualizations using AI without methodological justification and appropriate ethical approval is not permitted.
4. AI Usage Declaration Procedure
If AI is used during the manuscript preparation process, its utilization must be transparently disclosed in the methodology section or in the acknowledgment section before the reference list.
Example:
"During the preparation of this work, the author(s) used [AI Tool] to improve language quality and readability. The author(s) reviewed and edited the content and take full responsibility for the publication."
"During the preparation of this work, the author(s) used [AI Tool] to improve language quality and readability. The author(s) reviewed and edited the content and take full responsibility for the publication."
5. Peer Review Confidentiality
Reviewers and editors are prohibited from uploading or entering manuscripts under review into publicly available or commercial AI platforms in order to protect manuscript confidentiality and authors' intellectual property rights.
6. AI Detection and Editorial Actions
- The journal management may utilize AI detection tools as an instrument to evaluate compliance with ethical publication standards.
- The use of AI that does not comply with this policy or is not properly declared may result in editorial actions, including manuscript rejection or publication withdrawal.
