Use of Artificial Intelligence and Generative AI Tools in Publishing

Journal of Shalamar Medical & Dental College (JSHMDC) Journal follows the ICMJE (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors) recommendations on the use of AI in scholarly publishing. Authors, reviewers, and editors/publishers are expected to follow these principles:

·        AI tools cannot be listed or credited as an author. Authorship requires accountability, and AI cannot take responsibility for a paper's content.

·        AI tools sometimes pull information from other sources without giving proper credit, including copyrighted material. Authors are responsible for ensuring sources are cited correctly, permissions are obtained where needed, and nothing generated by AI results in unintentional plagiarism.

·        Manuscripts submitted to the journal are meant to stay confidential between the authors and the journal. Feeding a manuscript into an AI tool during review or processing can break that confidentiality. Editors, reviewers, and publishers should never upload a submitted manuscript to an AI system that cannot guarantee privacy, unless the authors have clearly agreed to it.

·        If AI was used, this must be disclosed by naming the AI tool and clearly stating how it was used.

  • The final responsibility for checking and standing behind any AI-assisted content always stays with the humans involved, not the AI itself, since AI tools can produce content that sounds confident and well-written even when it is wrong, incomplete, or biased.
  • JSHMDC recommends that authors, reviewers, and editors follow the relevant ICMJE guidance on the Use of AI by Authors, Use of AI by Reviewers, and Editors' Role in Ensuring Responsible Use of AI.

Disclosure of AI-Assisted Technology Use

  1. At submission, JSHMDC requires authors to disclose, per ICMJE guidelines, whether they used AI-assisted technologies (such as Large Language Models, chatbots, or image generators) in producing the submitted work.
  2. Authors who used such technology should describe how, in both the cover letter and the appropriate section of the manuscript — for example, describing writing assistance in the acknowledgments section.
  3. If AI was used for data collection, analysis, or figure generation, this use should be described in the Methods section.