Guidelines around usage of  artificial intelligence (AI)

 

Guidelines about the use of artificial intelligence have been issued by the Association of Scientific, Technical & Medical Publishers:

Ethical and Practical Guidelines for the Use of Generative AI in the Publication Process (STM paper 2023):

https://stm-assoc.org/new-stm-draft-report-classifying-ai-use-in-manuscript-preparation/

 

Update 2025, with a useful summarizing table: 

https://stm-assoc.org/document/stm-generative-ai-paper-2023/

 

We suggest our authors and reviewers read and follow these guidelines. We summarize below the most important recommendations for our authors and reviewers. 

 

Use of AI in the research process

Any use of AI in the research process itself, with tools developed by the authors or publicly available, must be acknowledged and justified. 

The methods section must include a clear explanation of how AI was integrated into the research process (e.g., data analysis, modeling, code generation, image manipulation or other applications). Regarding the use of AI in preparing the manuscript, this type of usage should not be mentioned in the Methods section. See below for the appropriate rules and procedures.

Authors must justify their use of AI, detailing why it was necessary or beneficial. They must verify and confirm that AI tools do not introduce biases or errors into the research. They should also pay attention to possible copyright or authorship issues. 

The Data Availability section should provide links or references to the AI tools used. A short summary about the use of AI should be added to the AI Use Statement section.

 

Use of generative AI in manuscript preparation

Recent developments in generative AI, particularly large language models (LLM) like ChatGPT, Claude, LeChat, or specialized tools like Elicit or NotebookLM now offer efficient tools to assist authors in writing and editing their research manuscripts. 

Authors must disclose and justify any use of AI tools in the cover letter to the editor, and, if relevant, in the AI Use Statement section.

The only exception is the use of AI to improve spelling, grammar, or general language clarity. This limited use supports inclusivity, particularly for non-native English writers. In this case, even if disclosure is not mandatory as suggested by the STM guidelines, we suggest the authors acknowledge the use of AI tools in their cover letter and AI Use Statement section. 

In general, AI tools should not be used to generate entire paragraphs, even if based on bullet points or specific prompts. According to STM guidelines, such use constitutes "AI-generated manuscript text." If AI is used in this way, authors must carefully review and edit all generated content, and fully disclose this in the cover letter and AI Use Statement section.

Authors must exercise caution when using AI to curate, summarize, or synthesize scientific literature, particularly in review or state-of-the-art sections. They should also pay attention to possible copyright or authorship issues. Any such use must be thoroughly explained and acknowledged in the cover letter and AI Use Statement  section.

AI may be used only in a limited capacity for creating or editing images and diagrams, strictly for illustrative or aesthetic purposes. Authors must clearly disclose and justify this use. A statement about AI usage must be added in the figure caption.  

Any other use of AI to process, analyze, or visually represent data is considered part of the research process. As such, it must be rigorously justified and clearly explained (see above "Use of AI in the research process"). 

In general, all other applications of AI are prohibited. If uncertain, authors must fully disclose and justify their approach to the editors. 

If undisclosed or prohibited AI use is suspected, authors may be asked to justify their process, or the manuscript may be rejected. The editors reserve the right to reject submissions if AI use violates ethical or professional standards, or does not follow the above rules and procedures.

 

Use of generative AI in manuscript review

Reviewers are strictly prohibited from using online generative AI tools to summarize or evaluate submitted manuscripts. Uploading a manuscript, or part of it, to third-party systems violates the manuscript’s confidentiality and authorship rights.

Any other limited use of AI by reviewers, such as improving spelling or clarifying language in their reviews, must adhere to the same guidelines as those for authors (see above) and should be disclosed in their confidential comments to the editors. In any case, reviewers must take great care not to compromise the confidentiality of the results and ideas presented in the submitted manuscript.