Generative AI

The Journal of Advanced Food Technology, Cultivation, and Innovation (JAFTCI) recognizes the potential contribution of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) and artificial intelligence-assisted technologies to scientific research, academic writing, data analysis, and scholarly communication. However, their use must be consistent with the principles of academic integrity, research originality, scientific accountability, transparency, confidentiality, and responsible publication practices.

This policy establishes requirements governing the use of generative AI technologies by authors, reviewers, editors, and other participants in the scholarly publication process. It applies to large language models, AI-powered writing assistants, automated content generation systems, AI-based image and figure generation tools, and other technologies capable of generating or substantially transforming scholarly content.

JAFTCI permits responsible and transparent use of AI-assisted technologies while maintaining the fundamental principle that human authors and editorial personnel remain fully accountable for scientific accuracy, intellectual originality, ethical compliance, and the integrity of published research.

🤖 01. General Principles of Generative AI Use

Generative AI may be used as a supporting technology, but it must not replace the intellectual responsibilities of researchers, authors, reviewers, or editors. The substantive research contribution, interpretation of evidence, verification of scientific claims, and final approval of the manuscript remain the responsibility of qualified human contributors.

Core Principles

  1. Transparency: Authors must disclose relevant AI-assisted activities and identify how the technology contributed to manuscript preparation or research.
  2. Human Accountability: Human authors remain responsible for all submitted content, including material developed or modified using AI technologies.
  3. Scientific Accuracy: AI-generated statements, references, analyses, and interpretations must be independently verified.
  4. Originality: AI-generated content must not introduce plagiarism, unattributed intellectual borrowing, or misleading representations of scientific contribution.
  5. Research Integrity: AI must not be used to fabricate, falsify, or manipulate scientific evidence.
  6. Confidentiality: Unpublished manuscripts and confidential research information must be protected from unauthorized disclosure.
  7. Editorial Independence: Scientific review and publication decisions must remain under appropriate human editorial responsibility.

✅ 02. Permitted Uses of Generative AI

JAFTCI permits the responsible use of generative AI as an auxiliary research or writing tool when its contribution is transparent, the resulting content is carefully reviewed, and the final manuscript satisfies the journal's scientific and ethical requirements.

✍️ Language and Grammar Assistance

AI-assisted tools may be used to improve grammar, spelling, readability, sentence structure, and linguistic clarity without changing the scientific meaning or introducing unsupported claims.

🌍 Academic Translation

AI tools may assist with translation and language editing, provided that the authors verify technical terminology, contextual accuracy, and consistency with the original scientific meaning.

📚 Literature Organization

AI may support literature discovery, organization, thematic classification, and preliminary synthesis. Authors must consult and verify original publications before using their findings in the manuscript.

💻 Coding and Computational Assistance

AI may assist in developing research scripts, computational workflows, and analytical code, provided that authors validate the outputs and describe relevant methodological applications.

📊 Research Data Analysis

AI-based analytical methods may support data classification, modeling, prediction, or interpretation when they form part of a scientifically justified and appropriately documented research methodology.

🧩 Conceptual Illustrations

AI-assisted conceptual diagrams or illustrative materials may be used when they are clearly identified, appropriately disclosed, and do not misrepresent experimental observations or original research evidence.

Responsible Use Requirement: Authors must carefully review, correct, and validate AI-assisted content before submission. Substantive AI involvement in manuscript drafting, analysis, figure creation, or research methodology must be disclosed in the manuscript.

🚫 03. Prohibited Uses of Generative AI

JAFTCI prohibits the use of generative AI in activities that compromise scientific authenticity, misrepresent research evidence, conceal intellectual contributions, or violate publication ethics.

  1. Fabricated Research Data: Using AI to invent experimental measurements, research observations, interview responses, survey results, laboratory findings, or statistical outputs and presenting them as genuine evidence.
  2. Falsified Scientific Images: Generating or manipulating images to misrepresent actual laboratory experiments, cultivation trials, field observations, microscopic findings, or other scientific records.
  3. Fabricated References: Including nonexistent publications, inaccurate DOIs, invented quotations, or false bibliographic information generated by AI.
  4. Misleading Authorship: Listing an AI application as an author or presenting an AI-generated intellectual contribution as independently verified human research without proper disclosure.
  5. Concealment of Substantive AI Use: Deliberately failing to disclose AI-generated scientific content, analyses, or methodological contributions required to be reported under this policy.
  6. Plagiarism and Copyright Violations: Using AI-generated or AI-transformed content that reproduces protected or attributable intellectual materials without appropriate acknowledgment or authorization.
  7. Manipulation of Editorial Evaluation: Using AI to fabricate reviewer correspondence, falsify supporting documentation, or misrepresent responses to editorial and peer-review recommendations.
  8. Unauthorized Disclosure: Uploading confidential manuscripts, personal information, unpublished datasets, or restricted research materials into AI platforms without the necessary authorization and safeguards.

👤 04. AI Authorship and Human Accountability

Generative AI applications, large language models, chatbots, and automated content generation systems cannot be listed as authors or co-authors of manuscripts submitted to JAFTCI.

Authorship requires intellectual responsibility, accountability for the accuracy and integrity of research, approval of the submitted and published versions, and the capacity to address questions concerning the scientific work. AI systems cannot independently fulfill these responsibilities.

Authorship Declaration

Only eligible human contributors may be identified as authors. All authors remain fully responsible for the originality, factual accuracy, research methodology, data integrity, references, conclusions, and ethical compliance of the manuscript, including any components developed with assistance from generative AI.

📝 05. Mandatory Disclosure of AI-Assisted Activities

Authors must disclose the use of generative AI or AI-assisted technologies during manuscript preparation when such technologies have contributed to text generation, substantive rewriting, research analysis, coding, image creation, data processing, or other meaningful scientific activities.

The corresponding author must provide an AI-use declaration during submission, including a statement of no use where applicable. When AI technologies have been used, the disclosure must identify the relevant tools and explain their contribution.

Required Disclosure Information

  1. Name of the AI tool or application used.
  2. Developer or provider of the application, where identifiable.
  3. Version or model information, where relevant and available.
  4. Purpose of the AI-assisted activity.
  5. Manuscript section or research procedure affected by AI assistance.
  6. Extent and nature of the AI contribution.
  7. Methods used by the authors to verify or validate the resulting content.

Location of AI Disclosure

✍️ Acknowledgement / Declaration

AI-assisted writing, editing, language support, and other manuscript preparation activities should be declared in an appropriate acknowledgement or AI-use declaration section.

🔬 Research Methods

AI used for data analysis, experimental modeling, coding, image generation, or research procedures must be described in the Methods section with sufficient detail for scientific assessment and reproducibility where applicable.

📑 06. Generative AI Declaration Examples

The following examples are provided to assist authors in preparing accurate and transparent statements. Authors must modify these declarations to reflect their actual use of AI technologies.

A. Declaration of AI-Assisted Writing

"During the preparation of this manuscript, the authors used [AI tool and version] for [specific language editing, drafting, or writing assistance]. All AI-assisted outputs were critically reviewed, revised, and verified by the authors. The authors take full responsibility for the accuracy, originality, and integrity of the final manuscript."

B. Declaration of AI-Assisted Research Analysis

"Artificial intelligence-assisted technology, [tool and version], was used to support [specific analytical or computational procedure]. The application, relevant parameters, and validation procedures are described in the Research Methods section. The authors independently verified the analytical outputs and remain responsible for the interpretation and accuracy of the reported findings."

C. Declaration of No Generative AI Use

"The authors declare that no generative artificial intelligence tools were used in the preparation, substantive writing, generation of research findings, analysis, or creation of scientific illustrations for this manuscript."

Disclosure Requirement: The declarations above are illustrative templates and must not be submitted unchanged when they do not accurately represent the authors' research or writing process. A declaration of no AI use must not be made when substantive AI assistance has occurred.

📊 07. Scientific Data, References, and AI-Generated Images

AI-generated materials must be evaluated carefully to prevent the introduction of unreliable evidence, inaccurate references, misleading visual representations, and unsupported scientific conclusions.

🧪 Research Data

AI-generated or synthetic data must never be presented as authentic experimental or field observations. Legitimate use of simulated data must be explicitly identified and scientifically justified.

📚 References and Citations

Authors must independently verify every scholarly reference, publication title, DOI, author name, and cited finding. AI output must not be treated as a substitute for consulting original scholarly sources.

🖼️ Scientific Images

AI must not be used to create, replace, or manipulate visual evidence in a manner that misrepresents experimental findings, research samples, field conditions, or scientific observations.

🧩 Illustrative Figures

AI-generated conceptual illustrations must be clearly identified, accurately described, and distinguished from actual scientific observations. Authors remain responsible for applicable intellectual property and licensing requirements.

🔍 08. Generative AI Use by Peer Reviewers and Editors

Peer reviewers and editors are required to protect manuscript confidentiality and preserve the independence and integrity of scholarly evaluation.

Unpublished manuscripts, reviewer comments, confidential editorial correspondence, and restricted research information must not be uploaded to external generative AI systems unless appropriate authorization has been obtained and the relevant confidentiality and data protection requirements have been satisfied.

👥 Peer Reviewers

Reviewers must not delegate their independent scientific judgment or preparation of substantive review conclusions to generative AI.

Any proposed AI-assisted review activity requires prior editorial permission, appropriate confidentiality protection, and transparent disclosure of the tool's use.

⚖️ Editors

Editors may not use unapproved AI systems to process confidential submissions or transfer editorial decision-making responsibilities to automated technologies.

Editorial decisions must remain under qualified human supervision and be based on scientific merit, reviewer assessments, and applicable publication ethics standards.

Confidentiality Principle: Permission to use AI in an editorial activity does not automatically authorize uploading confidential material to a third-party platform. Manuscript confidentiality, data handling arrangements, and author permissions must be considered independently.

🛡️ 09. Editorial Screening and AI-Related Integrity Concerns

JAFTCI reserves the right to request clarification about the use of generative AI and to evaluate manuscript content for possible inaccuracies, fabricated references, misleading images, undisclosed AI assistance, and other research integrity concerns.

Automated AI-detection tools may provide preliminary indicators for further examination; however, their outputs must not be treated as definitive proof that a manuscript was generated by AI or that publication misconduct has occurred.

Possible Editorial Actions

  1. Request an AI-use declaration or clarification from the corresponding author.
  2. Verify questionable references, scientific claims, analytical results, or visual materials.
  3. Request additional methodological information or supporting research evidence.
  4. Require correction of unsupported content, inaccurate citations, or misleading statements.
  5. Return a manuscript for revision or suspend evaluation pending clarification.
  6. Reject a manuscript when serious fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, or other misconduct is established.
  7. Apply appropriate post-publication corrections, expressions of concern, or retractions where justified.

Editorial responses to suspected AI-related misconduct must be proportional, evidence-based, and consistent with the journal's publication ethics policy and applicable guidance from the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

🔐 10. Data Privacy, Confidentiality, and Intellectual Property

Authors, reviewers, and editors must ensure that AI-assisted activities comply with applicable confidentiality obligations, intellectual property requirements, personal data protection standards, and research ethics regulations.

  • Do not upload confidential participant information into unauthorized AI systems.
  • Do not disclose unpublished research data contrary to applicable ethical approvals or research agreements.
  • Verify the data retention, training, privacy, and confidentiality conditions of AI services before submitting protected material.
  • Respect copyright and other intellectual property rights associated with source material and generated outputs.
  • Ensure that any AI-generated content included in a manuscript is suitable for lawful publication under the journal's applicable licensing policy.
  • Protect confidential manuscript files and editorial correspondence throughout the publication process.

✅ 11. Author Responsibility and Submission Declaration

By submitting a manuscript to JAFTCI, the corresponding author confirms that all contributing authors understand and accept the journal's Generative AI Policy. Authors are responsible for providing accurate information about AI-assisted activities and ensuring that their manuscripts comply with academic integrity and research ethics requirements.

Official Author Declaration

"The authors confirm that any generative AI technologies used in preparing this manuscript have been disclosed in accordance with the Journal of Advanced Food Technology, Cultivation, and Innovation (JAFTCI) Generative AI Policy.

All AI-assisted content, analytical outputs, scholarly references, and scientific interpretations have been reviewed and verified by the authors. No AI application has been designated as an author or co-author.

The authors accept full responsibility for the originality, accuracy, scientific validity, and ethical integrity of the submitted manuscript."

Authors who have not used generative AI technologies must provide an appropriate declaration of non-use rather than adopting the statement above without modification.

📚 12. International Guidance and Policy References

This policy draws upon internationally recognized guidance concerning responsible AI use in scholarly publishing. JAFTCI applies these principles in the context of its disciplinary scope, editorial procedures, and publication ethics requirements.

1. Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)

COPE Position on Authorship and AI Tools ↗

2. International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE)

ICMJE Recommendations on Artificial Intelligence ↗

3. World Association of Medical Editors (WAME)

WAME Recommendations on Chatbots and Generative AI in Scholarly Publications ↗

🌐 13. Generative AI Policy Information

Authors, reviewers, and editors seeking clarification regarding acceptable generative AI use, disclosure obligations, confidentiality, or research integrity should contact the JAFTCI editorial office through the official journal platform.

Journal of Advanced Food Technology, Cultivation, and Innovation

Generative AI Assistance: Permitted Under Responsible Use Conditions

AI Authorship: Prohibited

AI Use Declaration: Mandatory

Research Data Fabrication: Prohibited

Fabricated References: Prohibited

Human Scientific Accountability: Mandatory

Reviewer and Editorial Confidentiality: Mandatory

Copyright and Publication License: CC BY-SA 4.0

Official Journal Website: https://journal.austrodemika.org/index.php/jaftci