AI Use Policy

Integrative Plant Journal recognizes that artificial intelligence (AI) tools, including generative AI systems and AI-assisted writing, coding, visualization, and analytical tools, are increasingly used in academic work. The journal permits limited, transparent, and responsible use of such tools in manuscript preparation, but authors remain fully accountable for the accuracy, originality, integrity, and scientific validity of all submitted content.

The use of AI must never compromise research integrity, transparency, authorship standards, reproducibility, or ethical publishing practice.

1. Author Responsibility

Authors are fully responsible for all content submitted to the journal, including any part that has been edited, refined, generated, translated, visualized, coded, or otherwise assisted by AI tools. Authors must carefully review, verify, and where necessary correct all AI-assisted output before submission.

AI tools cannot take responsibility for the accuracy, interpretation, originality, methodological soundness, or integrity of scholarly work. Therefore, AI tools must not be listed as authors or co-authors of a manuscript.

2. Permissible Use Without Authorship Attribution

Authors may use AI tools for limited support functions such as:

grammar correction
spelling correction
language polishing
sentence improvement for readability
formatting assistance
translation support
code formatting or non-substantive technical cleanup

Such use does not make the AI tool an author. However, authors remain responsible for ensuring that the final text, code, and presentation are accurate, unbiased, and scientifically sound.

3. AI Use Requiring Disclosure

Authors must clearly disclose the use of AI tools if they have been used for any substantive purpose in manuscript preparation, including but not limited to:

generating draft text
rewriting, expanding, or restructuring sections of the manuscript
summarizing literature in a way that materially contributes to the manuscript
generating figures, graphical abstracts, diagrams, illustrations, maps, or visual content
assisting in coding, modelling, simulation, data analysis presentation, or interpretation for reporting in the manuscript
generating tables or structured content for inclusion in the manuscript
producing synthetic explanatory text for methods, results, or discussion sections

Where disclosure is required, authors should provide a brief statement specifying:

the name of the AI tool
the purpose for which it was used
the section or type of content affected

Such disclosure should be included in the manuscript in an appropriate section, such as the acknowledgements or a dedicated disclosure note, or provided at submission as required by the journal.

4. Prohibited Uses

The following uses of AI are not permitted:

listing AI tools as authors or co-authors
submitting AI-generated content as if it were entirely original human-authored scholarly writing without disclosure
generating or fabricating data, results, observations, images, graphs, tables, code outputs, model results, or experimental findings and presenting them as genuine research output
generating fake, non-existent, or unverifiable references
using AI in any way that misleads editors, reviewers, or readers about the true origin of the content
manipulating images, datasets, code, models, or results in a deceptive manner using AI tools
using AI to conceal methodological weakness, unsupported interpretation, or lack of actual analysis

Any such misuse may lead to rejection of the manuscript, withdrawal of a published article, or other editorial action in accordance with the journal’s ethics policy.

5. Accuracy, Bias, and Verification

AI-generated output may contain factual errors, fabricated citations, misleading interpretations, hidden assumptions, biased language, coding errors, or incomplete reasoning. Authors must therefore verify:

factual correctness
reference accuracy
originality of text
accuracy of code or model-related output
appropriateness of interpretations
absence of plagiarism or fabricated material

The journal will not accept the use of AI as an excuse for errors, ethical breaches, weak scholarship, or scientific misconduct.

6. Confidentiality and Sensitive Material

Authors should use caution when entering confidential, unpublished, personal, proprietary, institutionally restricted, or sensitive research material into AI platforms. This includes datasets, code, project documents, reviewer comments, and unpublished results.

The journal is not responsible for any confidentiality, copyright, licensing, or data privacy risks arising from the use of third-party AI tools.

Authors are expected to ensure that the use of any AI tool does not violate institutional, legal, ethical, contractual, or data protection requirements.

7. Editorial Assessment

The editors of Integrative Plant Journal reserve the right to:

request clarification regarding suspected AI use
ask authors to revise, verify, or remove AI-generated content
require disclosure statements to be added or corrected
reject manuscripts where AI use is misleading, excessive, undisclosed, or ethically unacceptable

Use of AI does not reduce editorial expectations regarding originality, clarity, methodological rigour, scientific quality, and ethical compliance.

8. Recommended Disclosure Statement

Where applicable, authors may use a statement such as:

“The authors used [name of AI tool] for [state purpose, e.g., language editing / initial drafting assistance / code formatting / figure preparation] during manuscript preparation. All output was reviewed, revised, and verified by the authors, who take full responsibility for the final content.”

9. Final Principle

AI may be used only as a support tool and not as a substitute for scholarly judgment, scientific reasoning, original analysis, methodological accountability, or author responsibility. Authors must ensure full transparency and maintain the highest standards of academic integrity in all submissions to Integrative Plant Journal.