The good practice policies in the use of generative AI and AI-assisted technologies presented below are aligned with Elsevier's recommendations for these cases.

Generative AI is a type of artificial intelligence technology that can produce various types of content, including text, images, audio, and synthetic data. Examples include ChatGPT, NovelAI, Jasper AI, Rytr AI, DALL-E, among others.

Journal Peer Review Process

This policy has been driven by the rise of generative AI and AI-assisted technologies and aims to provide greater transparency and guidance to authors, editors and reviewers. The journal will closely monitor ongoing developments in this area and will adjust or refine the policy accordingly. The following guide is specifically for reviewers.

When a researcher is invited to review another researcher's article, the manuscript should be treated as a confidential document. Reviewers should not upload a submitted manuscript or any part of it to a generative artificial intelligence tool, as this may violate the confidentiality and proprietary rights of the authors and, where the article contains personally identifiable information, may violate the data privacy rights.

This confidentiality requirement extends to the peer review report, as it may contain confidential information about the manuscript and/or the authors. For this reason, reviewers should not upload their peer review report to an AI tool, even if it is only for the purpose of improving language and readability.

Peer review is the heart of the scientific ecosystem and the journal meets the highest standards of integrity in this process. Reviewing a scientific manuscript involves responsibilities that can only be attributed to humans. Reviewers should not use generative AI or AI-assisted technologies to assist in the scientific review of an article, as the critical thinking and original evaluation required for peer review are outside the scope of this technology and there is a risk that technology generate incorrect, incomplete or biased conclusions about the manuscript. The reviewer is responsible for the content of the review report.

Scientific writing process

This policy has been driven by the rise of generative AI and AI-assisted technologies that are expected to be increasingly used by content creators. The policy aims to provide greater transparency and guidance to authors, readers, reviewers, editors and contributors. The journal will monitor this development and adjust or refine this policy where appropriate. Please note that the policy only addresses the writing process and not the use of artificial intelligence tools to analyze and extract information from data as part of the research process.

The journal states that authors cannot use generative AI or AI-assisted technologies in the writing process, improving the language or readability of their article.

Authors must not list AI and AI-assisted technologies as an author or co-author, or cite AI as an author. Authorship implies responsibilities and tasks that can only be attributed and performed by humans. Each (co-)author is responsible for ensuring that questions regarding the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved, and authorship requires the ability to approve the final version of the work and accept its submission. Authors are also responsible for ensuring that the work is original, that the listed authors qualify for authorship, and that the work does not infringe the rights of third parties.

Figure and image creation process

We do not allow the use of generative AI or AI-assisted tools to alter graphical assets that are subject to copyright. This may include enhancing, obscuring, moving, removing or introducing a specific feature within an image or figure. Adjustments to brightness, contrast or color balance are acceptable as long as they do not obscure or eliminate any information present in the original and have the corresponding approval of the rights holder.

The use of generative AI or AI-assisted tools for the generation of graphs or figures (images, photographs, maps, statistical graphs) is prohibited. To this end, the use of programs certified by the scientific community for these purposes is recommended. These programs must be properly referenced and have the respective licenses where applicable.

The only exception is if the use of AI or AI-assisted tools is part of the research design or research methods (such as in AI-assisted imaging approaches to generate or interpret the underlying research data, for example in the field of biomedical imaging). If this is done, such usage must be reproducibly described in the methods section. This should include an explanation of how the AI or AI-assisted tools were used in the process of creating or altering the image, and the model or tool name, version and extension numbers, and manufacturer. Authors must adhere to specific usage policies for AI software and ensure correct attribution of content. Where applicable, authors may be asked to provide AI-pre-adjusted versions of images, and/or the raw composite images used to create the final submitted versions, for editorial review.