AI Policy

General Principles

The Applied Journal of Digital Innovation (AJDI) recognizes the growing impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies, including Large Language Models (LLMs) and generative tools, on research, writing, and publishing.
This policy is grounded in the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME), and the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), and aligns with the ethical frameworks of major academic publishers such as Elsevier, Nature, IEEE, and PLOS.

Our goal is to promote the ethical, transparent, and responsible use of AI in all stages of the research and editorial process — from manuscript preparation to peer review and publication.

Use of AI Tools by Authors

AJDI allows the use of AI tools (e.g., ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Claude) for legitimate academic support purposes, such as improving language clarity, assisting with data organization, or generating visual summaries — provided such use is fully disclosed and humanly supervised.

  1. Authorship:
    AI systems cannot be listed as authors under any circumstances, as they do not meet the authorship criteria established by the ICMJE (e.g., intellectual contribution, accountability, and approval of the final version).

  2. Disclosure Requirements:
    If AI tools were used in the preparation of a manuscript — for writing assistance, data analysis, image generation, or figure/table creation — authors must explicitly disclose this in the Methods or Acknowledgments section, including:

    • The name and version of the AI tool used.

    • The date of use.

    • The specific tasks or functions performed.

    • Any prompts or parameters that significantly influenced the output.

  3. Accountability:
    Authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, and attribution of all content created or assisted by AI tools.
    AI-generated content must always be reviewed and validated by the authors prior to submission.

  4. Misuse of AI:

    • The use of AI for data fabrication, falsification, reference manipulation, or plagiarism constitutes serious research misconduct.

    • If such misconduct is identified, AJDI will apply the corresponding retraction, correction, or sanction procedures in accordance with COPE guidelines.

Use of AI by Reviewers

Peer reviewers play a critical role in maintaining the quality and integrity of AJDI publications.
To protect confidentiality and uphold ethical standards:

  1. Reviewers must not upload or share any manuscript content into open-access AI tools (e.g., ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot) that store user data, as this violates the confidentiality of the review process.

  2. If reviewers use AI tools to support language editing or structure in their reports, they must inform the editorial office.

  3. Reviewers remain fully accountable for any AI-generated content they include in their feedback, ensuring accuracy, neutrality, and appropriateness.

Use of AI by Editors and the Editorial Team

  1. The editorial team must clearly communicate this AI policy to authors and reviewers.

  2. Any internal use of AI tools (for editorial correspondence, decision support, or plagiarism checking) must be transparent, documented, and not influence editorial independence.

  3. Editors are responsible for maintaining data security, confidentiality, and ethical oversight at all times.

  4. AJDI employs specialized detection tools to identify AI-generated content, fabricated data, or manipulated text and images.

  5. Editorial decisions are made by human editors only — AI tools may assist in processing or formatting but not in judgment or acceptance decisions.

Ethical and Legal Alignment

AJDI explicitly aligns its AI policy with the Elsevier Generative AI Policy for Journals, which emphasizes responsible, transparent, and verifiable use of AI technologies in scientific publishing:
Elsevier Generative AI Policy

In case of uncertainty or dispute regarding AI use, AJDI will follow the ethical standards and best practices defined by COPE and WAME:

Final Considerations

  • AJDI values innovation with integrity.

  • The use of AI should always enhance, not replace, human creativity, critical thinking, and scientific rigor.

  • Transparency about AI use fosters trust in scholarly communication and ensures that published research reflects genuine human intellectual contribution.