At our journals, we recognize the growing use of AI-assisting tools in the field of natural language processing and its potential implications on research ethics and authorship. Therefore, we require authors to disclose the use of any AI-assisting tools in their research, including but not limited to language models, predictive keyboards, and code assistants. This disclosure should include the scope and nature of their use, as well as any potential sources of plagiarism.
Regarding the use of AI-assisting tools, we distinguish between the following cases:
- Assistance purely with the language of the paper: The use of tools that only assist with language, like Grammarly or spell checkers, does not need to be disclosed.
- Short-form input assistance: The use of predictive keyboards or tools like smart compose in Google Docs does not need to be disclosed.
- Literature search: While AI-assisting tools may be used as search assistants, authors should read and discuss the identified literature, and the usual requirements for citation accuracy and thoroughness of literature reviews apply.
- Low-novelty text: If AI-generated text describes widely known concepts, the authors should specify where such text was used and ensure that it is accurate and accompanied by relevant and appropriate citations.
- New ideas + new text: Using AI assistants for generating new ideas as well as new text is unacceptable. Most of the generated content may derive from existing work. Potential issues with such practice are related to originality, plagiarism, ownership, and authorship, whose consequences and impact are not yet clear.
Regardless of the cases above, the journal publishes original work from named human authors, and thus contributions from AI assistants can only be stated in the acknowledgments and/or by suitable references in the original research papers. We require that all authors and editors adhere to these guidelines. Their violation will lead to the removal of the published paper similar to our procedures dealing with plagiarism.