AI Ethics & Procedure

Ethical, transparent, accountable, and responsible use of artificial intelligence in scholarly research and publication.

1. Policy Statement

The Journal of Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence and Communications (JOCSAIC) recognizes that artificial intelligence (AI), including generative AI systems and AI-assisted tools, can support research, writing, data analysis, programming, and scholarly communication.

JOCSAIC permits responsible use of AI tools when such use is consistent with research integrity, transparency, confidentiality, applicable laws, and the journal's editorial requirements.

AI tools cannot replace the intellectual responsibility, critical judgment, and accountability required of human authors, editors, and reviewers. Individuals remain responsible for the work they submit, assess, or publish, including content generated or modified with AI assistance.

2. Core Ethical Principles

3. Permitted Uses of AI

Subject to appropriate verification, disclosure where required, and compliance with relevant licenses and privacy requirements, authors may use AI-assisted tools for tasks such as:

• Language editing, grammar checking, spelling correction, and improvement of readability.
• Translation and language assistance, provided the meaning and technical accuracy are checked by the authors.
• Brainstorming research questions, outlining manuscripts, or organizing ideas.
• Programming assistance, code explanation, debugging suggestions, and documentation.
• Supporting data exploration, statistical workflows, or computational analysis when the methods and outputs are independently validated.
• Preparing or editing figures and visual materials when the methods are appropriate, permitted, and do not misrepresent evidence.
• Other legitimate research-support activities that do not compromise originality, confidentiality, research ethics, or the reliability of the findings.

Permission to use an AI tool does not remove the obligation to disclose its use where required or to comply with the journal's other publication policies.

4. Prohibited and Unacceptable Uses

AI must not be used in ways that compromise research integrity or mislead readers, editors, reviewers, or the public. Unacceptable practices include:

• Fabricated references: submitting invented, nonexistent, or unverifiable citations as genuine sources.
• Fabricated data: inventing experiments, observations, survey responses, measurements, or research results and presenting them as real.
• Falsified findings: using AI to alter or misrepresent research results, statistical outputs, images, or other evidence.
• Plagiarism: presenting AI-generated or AI-rewritten material that improperly reproduces another person's work or ideas without appropriate attribution.
• False claims: presenting AI-generated statements, analyses, or interpretations as verified findings without adequate checking.
• Misleading visual evidence: generating or altering research images in ways that misrepresent experimental observations or scientific evidence.
• Undisclosed material AI assistance: concealing AI use when disclosure is required by this policy or the journal's instructions.
• Privacy violations: submitting confidential manuscripts, sensitive personal data, or restricted research information to AI services without appropriate authorization and safeguards.
• Peer-review manipulation: using AI to impersonate reviewers, fabricate reviews, or otherwise compromise the integrity of editorial assessment.
• Copyright and license violations: using AI-generated or AI-modified material without respecting applicable rights, permissions, and license conditions.

5. Responsibilities of Authors

Authors are responsible for ensuring that AI-assisted work meets the journal's scholarly and ethical standards. They must:

• Review and verify all AI-assisted text, citations, references, facts, equations, code, calculations, and interpretations before submission.
• Ensure that cited sources actually exist, are relevant to the claims made, and have been consulted or otherwise verified appropriately.
• Confirm that the reported methods, datasets, experiments, and results accurately represent the research conducted.
• Disclose relevant AI use according to the procedure in this policy.
• Ensure that AI assistance has not compromised originality, authorship attribution, research ethics, confidentiality, or copyright compliance.
• Take responsibility for correcting errors or inaccuracies, including those introduced by AI tools.
• Ensure that all listed authors satisfy the journal's authorship requirements and approve the submitted manuscript.
• Retain appropriate records of AI assistance when needed to explain how material, code, figures, or analyses were produced.

6. AI Tools and Authorship

AI systems and AI-assisted tools must not be listed as authors or co-authors of manuscripts submitted to JOCSAIC. Authorship requires human responsibility, intellectual contribution, approval of the manuscript, and accountability for the work.

Authors who use AI tools remain accountable for the submitted content. The use of an AI system does not transfer authorship responsibilities to the tool, and AI assistance alone does not establish a person's eligibility for authorship.

7. AI Use Disclosure Requirements

Authors must disclose substantive use of generative AI in preparing a manuscript, including AI assistance with drafting or rewriting scholarly content, generating or modifying figures, producing code or analytical outputs that materially affect the research, or interpreting results.

Routine spelling, grammar, and reference-formatting tools that do not generate substantive scholarly content may not require a separate disclosure unless the journal requests it. Authors should follow any additional instructions provided during submission.

A disclosure should identify the tool, explain its purpose, and describe the extent of its contribution. Authors must not imply that an AI system independently conducted or verified research that was not actually performed.

8. AI in Data Analysis, Programming, and Research Methods

When AI tools are used in programming, data analysis, simulations, modeling, or other research methods, authors must ensure that the work is reproducible and technically sound to the extent appropriate for the study.

• Verify generated code and test it against the intended research requirements.
• Check analytical assumptions, data transformations, statistical procedures, and model outputs.
• Describe material AI involvement in the methods or other appropriate section when necessary to understand or reproduce the research.
• Identify relevant software, model, version, or configuration details where necessary and available.
• Do not upload restricted datasets, confidential records, or personally identifiable information to AI services without appropriate authorization and safeguards.
• Do not present AI-generated simulations or synthetic data as observations collected from real-world participants or experiments.

9. AI-Generated Images, Figures, and Visual Materials

AI-generated or AI-modified visual materials must not misrepresent research evidence. Authors must distinguish illustrative or conceptual graphics from images that purport to document experiments, observations, or scientific results.

• Do not use generated images as genuine experimental, clinical, fieldwork, or observational evidence.
• Disclose AI assistance in creating or materially modifying figures when relevant to the research or required by the journal.
• Ensure that labels, scales, annotations, and visual representations accurately reflect the underlying data.
• Respect copyright, permissions, privacy, and applicable licenses.
• Retain original data and unmodified images where needed to verify the reported findings.

10. Responsibilities of Editors

Editors handling manuscripts that involve AI-assisted content must:

• Apply this policy consistently and assess AI disclosures in the context of the manuscript.
• Protect manuscript confidentiality and personal data during editorial assessment.
• Declare and manage conflicts of interest involving authors, reviewers, institutions, or AI-related commercial interests.
• Evaluate credible concerns about fabricated references, unreliable data, plagiarism, or misleading AI-generated material.
• Use available evidence and appropriate editorial judgment rather than relying solely on automated AI-detection scores.
• Give authors a reasonable opportunity to respond to significant concerns where appropriate.
• Apply proportionate corrective or disciplinary action in accordance with the journal's established procedures.

11. Responsibilities of Reviewers

Reviewers are expected to preserve the confidentiality, independence, and integrity of peer review.

• Do not upload confidential manuscripts, unpublished findings, reviewer reports, or identifiable author information to external AI tools unless explicitly authorized and consistent with applicable confidentiality and data-protection requirements.
• Do not delegate substantive peer-review judgment to an AI system without authorization from the journal.
• Verify any AI-assisted observations and remain personally responsible for the review submitted.
• Do not use AI to fabricate criticisms, citations, evidence, or claims about a manuscript.
• Declare relevant conflicts of interest and decline the review when impartiality or confidentiality cannot be maintained.

12. AI Detection and Editorial Assessment

Where appropriate tools are available, the journal may consider AI-detection indicators as one source of information during editorial assessment. Such indicators are not conclusive evidence that a manuscript was written by AI or that misconduct has occurred.

Decisions must consider the manuscript, disclosure statements, relevant evidence, and the circumstances of the case. JOCSAIC will not treat an automated AI-detection score alone as sufficient grounds for a finding of misconduct.

13. Procedure for Handling Suspected Violations

Suspected violations of this policy may be reported to the editorial team through the journal's official contact channel. The journal may follow the steps below, adapting the process to the nature and seriousness of the concern.

Where necessary, the journal may consult appropriate experts or contact an author's institution or other relevant body. Allegations must be assessed fairly and must not be treated as proof of wrongdoing before the evidence has been evaluated.

14. Possible Editorial Actions

Depending on the nature, severity, and evidence of a violation, JOCSAIC may take one or more of the following actions:

• Request clarification, disclosure, correction, or additional documentation.
• Return the manuscript for revision.
• Pause editorial processing while a material concern is assessed.
• Reject a manuscript when serious ethical concerns are established or remain unresolved.
• Issue a correction or expression of concern for a published article when warranted.
• Retract a published article when justified by the evidence and the journal's Correction & Retraction Policy.
• Refer serious concerns to an appropriate institution or other responsible body when warranted.

Editorial actions should be evidence-based, proportionate, documented, and consistent with the journal's other policies.

15. Alignment with COPE Guidance

JOCSAIC refers to relevant guidance from the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) when developing and reviewing its procedures for research integrity, responsible use of AI, publication misconduct, and editorial decision-making.

The journal's approach emphasizes transparency, accountability, fair assessment, confidentiality, and appropriate responses to credible ethical concerns.

16. Related Journal Policies

This policy should be read together with the following JOCSAIC policies and procedures:

• Publication Ethics
• Plagiarism Policy
• Allegation of Research Misconduct
• Peer Review Process
• Correction & Retraction Policy
• Author Guidelines

Responsible AI, Responsible Research

AI can support scholarly work, but research integrity, critical judgment, and accountability remain human responsibilities.