GenAI in Research: Publication

 

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Academic Journals and their Publisher's have policies that govern the use of GenAI in the publishing environment. 

These cover

  • authorship
  • disclosure / acknowledgements 
  • peer reviewing and editing
  • copyright

 

  If you want to use GenAI and have your research published, you'll need to familiarise yourself with these policies early on in design stage of your research project.

 

These policies can differ between publishers and may be updated periodically.

You can access the main academic publisher policies on this guide.

Authorship

The Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) has taken the position that AI Tools cannot be granted authorship

"AI tools cannot meet the requirements for authorship as they cannot take responsibility for the submitted work. As non-legal entities, they cannot assert the presence or absence of conflicts of interest nor manage copyright and license agreements" (COPE Council. COPE position - Authorship and AI - English). 

 

Academic publishers are usually members of COPE. They uphold the ogranisation's position on matters of publication ethics. You'll find most of the publisher policies included at the bottom of this page [jump link to page] reiterate COPE's statement on authorship.

 

Why is this statement important?

  • It means that you (and any co-authors) are solely responsible for the content of a submitted article, including any content generated by an AI tool that may be incorrect, biased, or of unknown provenance.
  • You (and any co-authors) are liable for any breach of publication (or research) ethics.
  • All named authors must disclose to each other if they have used Assistive or Generative AI in the drafting or research of a text. 
  • If you have used GenAI in your article, or in the research project informing the article, it must be disclosed (acknowledged) in the text. [link jump to disclose section of the guide]

Disclosing GenAI in Publications

 

Publishers often have their own guidelines for authors around the disclosure of GenAI in a journal or book submission, and these can differ across publishers, so you should always check the the GenAI policy or Instructions for Authors document of the publisher or journal where you are submitting to understand where to put your disclosure and how to format it. 

There are however, some general best principles around where and how to disclose GenAI, provided by research integrity frameworks introduced earlier.

 

All uses of GenAI in a research publications require disclosure

 

In a Journal Article, there are several places where you could make this disclosure depending on how you have used the tool and the publisher's guidelines. You could disclose in the Research Methods; Acknowledgements; Disclosure Statement; and/or References List.

Click through the boxes below for information about which section to choose, and examples of disclosures.

 

Peer Review (and Editorial) Feedback & Copyright

 

 All the publisher policies listed in this guide prohibit the use of GenAI tools to assist with Peer Reviewer duties

  • Journal Submissions, even in the pre-publication stages, are protected confidential materials. Most GenAI tools are trained to trawl massive collections of information irrespective of their confidential or copyrighted status
As an author, when you submit to a journal you expect that your article is protected against acts of plagiarism and misappropriation during the editorial and peer review process.

 

  • As a peer reviewer or an editor, inputting parts or all of a journal submission under review into a GenAI tool risks violating this author expectation, and publisher-protected copyright frame.
  • It will also risk the anonymity and intellectual integrity of the peer review process.
  • If you are an author with an article under review, peer review is a privileged opportunity to receive expert and often generous feedback designed to strengthen your research - using GenAI to incorporate reviewer feedback misses this chance to learn and grow intellectually.

PUBLISHER POLICIES

 

Taylor & Francis' Policy covers Journals and Books

Read the Taylor & Francis AI Policy to understand their requirements for the responsible use of GenAI. The policy covers Authorship, Acknowledgements, Data, Copyright, Peer Review, and Editorships.

 

 


 

 

The Elsevier policy for AI in Journals covers a lot of ground.

For Authors: it includes the publisher's specifications for correct disclosure of AI use, and limitations on AI alterations to submitted images, to name a few key points...

Elsevier have another policy for Book Authors, Editors, and Readers.

 

 

Springer Nature's AI policy has a brief paragraph for authors, and notably prohibits the submission of GenAI generated images, with a few exceptions...

 

 

 

You'll find a paragraph outlining the IEEE's guidelines for AI generated text on their Author Centre, in Submission Policies

 

Cambridge AI in research publishing policy

The Cambridge principles for generative AI in research publishing include that: 

  • AI must be declared and clearly explained in publications such as research papers, just as scholars do with other software, tools and methodologies. 
  • AI does not meet the Cambridge requirements for authorship, given the need for accountability. AI and LLM tools may not be listed as an author on any scholarly work published by Cambridge. 
  • Any use of AI must not breach Cambridge's plagiarism policy. Scholarly works must be the author's own, and not present others' ideas, data, words or other material without adequate citation and transparent referencing. 
  • Authors are accountable for the accuracy, integrity and originality of their research papers, including for any use of AI. 

 

 

Sage has comprehensive Assistive and generative AI guidelines for authors

It includes a helpful template for disclosing GenAI use:

Full title of your submission: 

Type of submission (e.g., research article, book chapter): 

Name of the Generative AI tool used: 

Brief description of how the tool was used in your writing process: 

Your full name:

Your primary contact at Sage or Corwin:

The name of the Generative AI Tool(s) used in your submission:

(https://www.software.ac.uk/publication/how-cite-and-describe-software(opens in a new tab)) 

Rationale for AI use:

Explain your reasoning for using AI and the tool(s) you selected. How it was used? What did you use AI to do? 

Final prompt given:

Final response generated:

Please include all of the prompts & responses used in your submission and indicate where in your submission the AI generated content appears.  

Wiley's guidelines for the use of AI in submissions can be found in their Best Practice Guidelines on Research Integrity and Publishing Ethics

 

Oxford Academic's policy is mainly directed to Book contributors, and covers authorship, accountability, and disclosure.

Authors looking to submit to an OUP journal should look at the specific journal's "Instructions for Authors"