AI Policy

Artificial Intelligence Generated Content (AIGC)*

Definitions

‘AI’ and ‘automation’ are not interchangeable - automation refers to rules based software, and includes tools like spelling and grammar checkers, whereas Artificial Intelligence Generated Content (AIGC) refers to unique content created by tools using predictions made via machine learning from LLMs (large language models) or SMLs (small language models).

This policy covers the use of AIGC whether by authors, editors, or peer reviewers. Use of automation is not included in this policy and is permitted by The Kansas Undergradaute Journal of International Studies (KUJIS).

Authorship

KUJIS is in agreement with the following statement from the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE):

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.

Please review COPE’s Full statement on AI authorship.

Therefore, manuscripts should not list AI tools as coauthors when submitting to KUJIS.

KUJIS Policy on the use of AIGC and AI Tools

Below is outlined KUJIS's policy on the use of AIGC and AI tools for authors, editors and peer reviewers.

Appreciating that the field of artificial intelligence is changing very rapidly and that tools are evolving at an exponential rate, KUJIS will review developments and COPE guidelines for AI use and update this policy to reflect the most current best practice.

Authors

If authors submitting to KUJIS have used AIGC in any portion of a manuscript, including text, data, images, graphics, videos, citations, or translations, the tool and its use  must be described in detail in the Methods and/or Acknowledgements sections of the manuscript, including prompts used if appropriate, and the full text of the original AIGC be attached as supplemental material. AIGC tools include, but are not limited to, GPT-4, ChatGPT, GitHub Copilot, Bard, DALL-E2, Midjourney, and other tools trained on LLMs or SMLs that generate unique content based on predictions. This also applies to AIGC add-ons within software offered by Microsoft, Adobe and others, as well as online applications offered by Google, Zoom, Canva, Atlas.ti and others.

In the submission process, authors will be asked to complete the following statement declaring any AIGC in the manuscript:

During the preparation of this work the author(s) used [NAME TOOL / SERVICE] in order to [REASON]. After using this tool/service, the author(s) reviewed and edited the content as needed and take(s) full responsibility for the factual accuracy and originality of the material. 

Standard grammatical aid tools such as rules based software that automates, for example, general spelling and grammar are not considered AIGC and are not required to be listed.

If authors discover sources through the use of AI tools, they must access those sources directly in order to use and cite them in their manuscripts.

In accordance with the above COPE statement: 

  • AIGC tools cannot be listed as authors. 
  • As with standard manuscript submission, the author is responsible for the accuracy of all information provided by the tool. 

Editors

Selection of peer reviewers by KUJIS editors will not be done by AI tools and manuscripts submitted to KUJIS will not be uploaded into such tools. Authors submitting to KUJIS assume that their manuscript will be treated with confidentiality throughout the editorial and peer review process. As it is currently unclear how data ingested in AI tools is stored and reused, sharing any part of the manuscript including text, figures, graphs, and images violates the confidentiality authors expect when submitting manuscripts to KUJIS. As such, editors agree not to ingest the manuscript into artificial intelligence tools to evaluate the material or find potential peer reviewers. 

Editors may search AI supported discovery tools with keywords of their own design to assist in finding expert researchers in a particular field, much as they would consult resources such as Google Scholar or Scopus to find names of prominent authors in a given area of expertise.

Peer Review

Just as authors are accountable for the quality and integrity of their scholarly work, KUJIS holds peer reviewers to the same standard. At this point in time, KUJIS does not allow the use of AI tools in the peer review of manuscripts. Among the reasons are:

  • AIGC tools are trained on past data whereas the peer review process is concerned with the evaluation of new research and the novel application of methodologies which can only be properly assessed by expert researchers in the field.
  • AIGC tools at this point in time can replicate and amplify human bias rather than correct it in the peer review process.
  • AIGC tools are often created and owned by private commercial interests and their processes are not transparent or interpretable.
  • Uploading manuscripts into AIGC tools potentially compromises authors' proprietary rights and confidentiality.

Peer reviewers will be required to acknowledge KUJIS's policy on the use of AI in peer review when accepting manuscripts for review.

* This policy is based upon the AIGC policy from the Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly Communication.