About the Journal
- Focus and Scope
- Editorial Board
- Peer Review Policy
- Open Access Policy
- Publication Ethics
- Advertising Policy
- Advertisers and Sponsors
- Journal Archiving
- Publication Fee
- Journal Stats
- Complaint Policy
- Publication Schedule
- Privacy Policy
- AI Policy
Use of Artificial Intelligence
Generative artificial intelligence (AI) and AI-assisted technologies are increasingly used at every stage of scholarly publishing.
This policy applies to authors, peer reviewers, editors, and editorial staff, and covers all stages of the publishing process from submission through production. It should be read alongside the existing editorial policies, and is aligned with current guidance from COPE, ICMJE and major indexing bodies. It will be reviewed periodically as the technology and sector norms evolve.
Core Principles
- Accountability: Authors, reviewers, and editors remain fully responsible for the accuracy, integrity, and originality of any content they submit or produce, regardless of what tools were used to help generate it.
- Transparency: Any material use of AI in the research, writing, review, or editorial process must be disclosed, in enough detail that readers and editors can understand how it was used.
- Confidentiality: Unpublished manuscripts and associated data are confidential. They must not be uploaded to any AI tool that is not contractually bound to maintain confidentiality and to exclude submitted content from model training.
- No AI authorship: AI tools cannot be listed as authors or co-authors on any submission, as they cannot take responsibility for the work or give consent to its publication.
Use by Authors
Permitted uses
Authors may use AI tools to support language editing, grammar and style improvement, formatting, and literature discovery, provided the requirements below are met. AI tools may also be used to assist with coding, data analysis, or figure preparation, subject to the same disclosure and verification requirements.
Disclosure requirement
Where AI tools have been used in a way that materially shaped the content of the manuscript (e.g., drafting text, generating or analysing data, generating or altering images, or producing code), authors must disclose this in the in a dedicated statement in the main manuscript (Declaration of generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in the manuscript preparation process). The disclosure should specify:
- The name and version of the tool used;
- The stage(s) of the work where it was used (e.g., drafting, translation, data analysis, figure generation);
- Confirmation that the author(s) have reviewed and verified the AI-assisted output for accuracy and have taken full responsibility for it.
Prohibited uses
- AI-generated text, data, or citations may not be submitted as original findings, and fabricated or hallucinated references are treated as a form of research misconduct.
- AI tools may not be used to generate or manipulate images or figures representing research data (e.g., blots, micrographs, clinical images) in a way that misrepresents the underlying data.
- AI systems cannot be credited as an author or listed in the acknowledgements as a contributor with responsibility for the work; they may only be cited as a tool, where relevant, in the Methods or a disclosure statement.
Use by Peer Reviewers
Peer review depends on confidentiality and independent expert judgement. Reviewers must not upload manuscripts, in whole or in part, to any AI tool, including for the purposes of summarisation, translation, or drafting a review. This restriction exists because most publicly available AI tools retain submitted content or use it to train future models, which would breach the confidentiality owed to authors.
Reviewers may use AI tools for general tasks unrelated to the manuscript's content, such as improving the clarity of their own written comments, provided no confidential manuscript content is entered into the tool. The scientific assessment, judgement, and recommendation in a review must be the reviewer's own.
Handling of Suspected Violations
Suspected violations of this policy — such as undisclosed AI-generated text, fabricated references, or manipulated figures — will be handled under the journal's existing research integrity and misconduct procedures, in line with COPE guidelines. This may include requesting clarification from authors, requiring revision with full disclosure, correction after publication, or rejection/retraction in serious cases.
