The guidelines for the use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in the scientific publication process are based on the recommendations of the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME) regarding chatbots and generative AI for scholarly publications. Recommendation
1: Chatbots Cannot Be Authors. Chatbots do not meet the criteria for authorship, particularly regarding the capacity to provide final approval of the version to be published and to bear responsibility for all aspects of the work in ensuring proper research conduct and addressing issues related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the study. No AI tool can "understand" a conflict-of-interest statement or possess the legal status required to sign such a document. Chatbots have no institutional affiliation independent of their developers. Since submitting authors must ensure that all contributors meet authorship criteria, chatbots cannot be included as authors. Recommendation
2: Authors must be transparent when using chatbots and provide information regarding their use. The extent and nature of chatbot usage in scientific publications must be explicitly stated. This is consistent with the recommendation to acknowledge writing assistance and provide detailed information within the article on the methodology of the research and the process of obtaining results.. Recommendation
2.1: Submitting authors of a paper in which a chatbot/AI was used to develop new text must disclose such use in the Acknowledgments section; all prompts used to generate new text or to transform text/prompts into tables or illustrations should be specified. Recommendation
2.2: If an AI tool, such as a chatbot, was used to perform or generate analytical work, assist in reporting results (e.g., creating tables or figures), or write computer code, this must be stated both in the abstract and the main body of the article. To enable scientific scrutiny, including replication and fraud detection, authors should provide the complete prompt (query string) used to generate research results, the time and date of the query, and the specific AI tool and version utilized. Recommendation
3: Authors Bear Responsibility for Material Provided by a Chatbot. Authors are responsible for all material generated by a chatbot in their article (specifically for the accuracy of the presented material and the absence of plagiarism) and for the appropriate citation of all sources (including original sources for materials generated by the chatbot). Authors must ensure that the content reflects their own data and ideas and is free from plagiarism, fabrication, or falsification. Otherwise, submitting such material for publication, regardless of how it was written, constitutes a violation of scientific norms. Similarly, authors must ensure that all cited materials are properly attributed with full citations and that the cited sources support the text generated by the chatbot. Since chatbots may be designed to exclude sources that contradict the viewpoints expressed in their outputs, authors are responsible for identifying, reviewing, and including such opposing views in their articles. Authors must specify the measures taken to mitigate the risk of plagiarism, provide a balanced perspective, and ensure the accuracy of all references. Recommendation
4: Editors and Reviewers Must Disclose Chatbot Use. Editors and reviewers must disclose to both authors and each other any use of chatbots for manuscript evaluation, the generation of reviews, or correspondence. Editors and reviewers are responsible for any content and citations generated by a chatbot. They must be aware that chatbots retain the prompts submitted to them, including manuscript content; therefore, submitting an author’s manuscript to a chatbot violates the confidentiality of the submission.
Recommendation 5: Use of AI-Detection Tools. Editors should, where possible, employ appropriate tools to assist in detecting content generated or altered by AI. Such tools should be utilized for the benefit of science and the public interest.