Artificial Intelligence (AI) Policy

ISPEC Journal of Agricultural Sciences follows the WAME (2023), COPE (2023), and ICMJE (2024) guidelines on the use of generative AI and large language models (LLMs) in publication workflows.

1. Authorship: AI tools (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Copilot and similar) cannot be listed as authors. Only humans who can take responsibility and be accountable for their decisions qualify as authors (ICMJE 2024 Criteria 1-4).

2. Mandatory Transparency: Any use of AI tools during manuscript preparation (language editing, summarisation, data analysis, image generation etc.) must be explicitly declared in the Methods section and in a separate 'AI Usage Disclosure' section. The model, version, date, and prompts used must be stated.

3. Author Responsibility: Authors are fully accountable for the accuracy, originality, ethical compliance, and correct attribution of any AI-generated content. Authors must verify that any references generated by LLMs actually exist.

4. Peer Review: Reviewers must not upload the manuscript they are reviewing to any AI tool (confidentiality breach). Editors are subject to the same restriction.

5. Acceptable Uses: Grammar and spelling correction, formatting, text shortening — all acceptable if declared.

6. Unacceptable Uses: Data fabrication, fabricating references, simulated statistical analysis, AI-written Discussion sections, AI-generated reviewer reports.

7. Figures and Tables: Any figure, graph, data table, or image generated by AI must be clearly labelled; the tool, version, and prompts must be supplied as supplementary material. Fully AI-generated images may be used only for methodological purposes, not for discussion or decoration.

This policy is updated at least annually in line with developments in AI technologies

Last Update Time: 04.04.2026