Use of AI Statement

AI Cannot Be an Author: AI tools and AI-assisted technologies (e.g., Large Language Models, Generative AI) do not meet authorship criteria because they cannot take responsibility for the content, integrity, or originality of the work. Therefore, AI tools or software must not be listed as authors on any submitted manuscript.

Full Responsibility of Authors: Authors remain fully responsible and accountable for the entire content of their submitted manuscript, including any portions generated, edited, or enhanced by AI tools. This encompasses the accuracy, integrity, originality, and ethical soundness of the work. Authors are required to verify the factual correctness of any statements, citations, data, or figures generated by AI.

Human Supervision Required: The use of AI tools must be under direct human supervision. Authors must critically evaluate, edit, and revise any material generated by AI to ensure it aligns with scientific standards, accuracy, and ethical guidelines.

Mandatory Disclosure: Authors are required to disclose the use of AI and AI-assisted technologies in the preparation of their manuscripts. This disclosure must be explicit, specific, and transparent.

Information to Disclose: The disclosure must include:

Location of Disclosure: This disclosure should typically be included in one of the following sections:

Example Disclosure Statement: "Portions of this manuscript were drafted/edited/enhanced using [Name of AI tool, e.g., ChatGPT-4 (OpenAI)]. The authors used this tool for [specific purpose, e.g., improving grammar and clarity/drafting an initial version of the Introduction section]. All content generated by AI was thoroughly reviewed, edited, and validated by the authors, who take full responsibility for the final content." Or for image generation: "Figure X was created with the assistance of [Name of AI tool, e.g., Midjourney v5]. The authors provided the prompts and edited the output to ensure accuracy and relevance."

Language and Grammar Enhancement: Improving readability, spelling, grammar, and sentence structure.

Drafting Assistance: Assisting in drafting initial versions of specific sections that are not critical to the core research findings (e.g., parts of the Introduction or Discussion for stylistic refinement), which must then be thoroughly reviewed and revised by the authors.

Brainstorming and Idea Generation: Assisting in conceptualizing ideas or outlining the structure of the manuscript.

Data Analysis and Visualization Assistance: (Only if verified and reproducible by human authors). If AI is used in data processing, analysis, or generating figures/tables, the specific methods, tools, and verification steps must be described in detail in the Methods section.

Literature Summarization: Assisting in summarizing existing literature; however, authors must ensure the accuracy of the summary and properly cite original sources.

Generating Fictitious Content: Creating false data, fabricated research results, or non-existent references/citations.

Plagiarism: Using AI-generated content without proper attribution (i.e., presenting it as original work when it was not entirely human-generated or verified). All AI-generated content must be treated like any other source and properly attributed if it relies on existing intellectual property or specific datasets.

Substituting Human Intellectual Contribution: AI cannot perform the core intellectual work of research, such as formulating original hypotheses, designing experiments, interpreting novel findings, or drawing original conclusions.

Violating Confidentiality: Reviewers and editors are strictly prohibited from using AI tools with confidential manuscript content (e.g., uploading manuscripts to publicly accessible AI models), as this may breach confidentiality, copyright, and the integrity of the peer-review process.

Misrepresenting Research: Using AI to intentionally mislead readers regarding the methods, results, or conclusions of the research.

Rejection of the submitted manuscript.

Retraction of the published article.

A ban preventing the author(s) from submitting manuscripts to this journal in the future.

Notification sent to the author's affiliated institution and relevant ethics committees.