AI Usage Policy for Manuscript Preparation

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NanoNEXT is committed to upholding the highest standards of publication ethics, research integrity, editorial independence, transparency, confidentiality, and accountability. This Policy governs the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and AI-assisted technologies in relation to manuscript preparation, submission, peer review, editorial assessment, decision-making, and publication in the Journal. This Policy applies to all authors, reviewers, editors, editorial board members, editorial staff, and any other persons involved in the Journal’s publication process.

1. Purpose and Scope
   • This Policy is established to ensure that the use of AI and AI-assisted technologies does not compromise the integrity, originality, reliability, confidentiality, or accountability of the scholarly record.
   • For the purposes of this Policy, “AI and AI-assisted technologies” include, but are not limited to, generative AI systems, large language models, chatbots, automated writing tools, image generators, code generators, and similar technologies capable of producing, revising, transforming, or analyzing scholarly content.
   • This Policy applies to the use of such technologies in text generation, language editing, translation, figure or image generation or alteration, peer-review support, editorial correspondence, and related publication activities.
2. General Principles
• The intellectual responsibility for any manuscript submitted to NanoNEXT rests entirely with the human author or authors.
• Authors are fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, validity, legality, and integrity of all content submitted to the Journal, including any content that has been created, revised, translated, summarized, or otherwise assisted by AI technologies.
• AI tools cannot assume responsibility for scholarly work and therefore cannot satisfy the requirements for authorship, contributorship accountability, conflict disclosure, or copyright-related obligations.
• The use of AI shall not replace human intellectual contribution, scientific judgment, interpretation, or critical analysis (https://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/artificial-intelligence/ai-use-by-authors.html) (https://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/defining-the-role-of-authors-and-contributors.html) (https://publicationethics.org/guidance/cope-position/authorship-and-ai-tools?utm) .
3. Permissible Use by Authors
• Authors may use AI and AI-assisted technologies only in a limited and responsible manner for non-substantive support functions.
• Permissible uses may include:
  grammar, spelling, punctuation, and language correction;
  b. improvement of readability and style;
  c. translation of author-generated content;
  d. formatting assistance or organizational refinement;
  e. limited assistance in preparing code, where such assistance is fully reviewed, validated, and accepted by the authors; and
  f. use of AI as part of the research methodology, provided that such use is scientifically justified and fully described in the manuscript.
• Any output generated or modified with AI must be carefully reviewed, verified, and, where necessary, corrected by the authors before submission.
• These permitted-use boundaries reflect ICMJE’s position that authors may use AI with careful review and editing, and that AI used as part of the study itself should be described as a methodological component (https://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/artificial-intelligence/ai-use-by-authors.html?utm) (https://www.icmje.org/recommendations/?utm) .
4. Prohibited Use by Authors
• AI tools must not be listed as authors or co-authors of a manuscript.
• Authors must not use AI tools to fabricate, falsify, manipulate, distort, or misrepresent data, references, citations, images, permissions, ethical approvals, authorship statements, declarations, or research findings.
• Authors must not submit AI-generated or AI-rewritten scholarly content as if it were their own original intellectual contribution without proper human authorship, verification, and disclosure.
• Authors must not use AI tools to generate false references, non-existent sources, misleading literature summaries, or unverifiable factual assertions.
• Authors must not use AI to generate, alter, enhance, or suppress figures, images, graphical abstracts, tables, or other visual materials in a manner that misleads readers or obscures the original research record, unless such use is an explicit and properly described part of the research methodology.
• Authors must not upload confidential, proprietary, unpublished, personally identifiable, or ethically sensitive material into public or non-approved AI systems (https://doaj.org/apply/transparency/?utm).
• These restrictions reflect the broader publication-ethics expectation that journals publicly state how they prevent misconduct and protect the integrity of the record.
5. Disclosure Requirements for Authors
• Any use of AI or AI-assisted technologies in the preparation of a manuscript must be disclosed at the time of submission.
• Disclosure must be made in both:
  the cover letter or designated submission-form field; and
  b. the manuscript itself.
• The manuscript shall contain a separate section titled:
  Declaration of AI and AI-Assisted Technologies Use
• This declaration shall be placed before the References section unless the Journal’s manuscript template specifies otherwise.
• The declaration must clearly state:
  the name of the tool or service used;
  b. the provider, where available;
  c. the purpose for which the tool was used;
  d. the part of the manuscript or stage of preparation affected; and
  e. a statement confirming that the authors reviewed, verified, and accept full responsibility for the final content.
• Where AI forms part of the research design, analytical method, computational pipeline, or experimental process, the use of AI must also be described in sufficient detail in the Methods section to permit proper scientific and editorial evaluation.
• This disclosure approach is aligned with ICMJE’s AI recommendations and with Scopus-facing expectations that policies be clearly public, specific, and enforceable.
6. Sample Disclosure Statement
• Where applicable, authors may use the following wording: During the preparation of this manuscript, the author(s) used [name of tool/service] for [state purpose, for example language editing, translation, or structural refinement]. The author(s) reviewed and edited the output as necessary and accept full responsibility for the accuracy, originality, and integrity of the final manuscript.
• If no AI tools were used, authors may state: The authors declare that no AI or AI-assisted technologies were used in the preparation of this manuscript.
7. Policy for Reviewers
• All manuscripts under review, including supplementary files, reviewer forms, revisions, rebuttal letters, and related correspondence, shall be treated as strictly confidential documents.
• Reviewers must not upload any manuscript content, associated files, or confidential correspondence into public or non-approved AI tools.
• Reviewers must not use AI tools to generate peer-review reports, recommend editorial decisions, summarize confidential content for external processing, or replace their own
• Any journal-approved internal technical tools used for workflow support shall not replace reviewer responsibility, scholarly assessment, or confidentiality obligations.
• Reviewers remain solely responsible for the content, quality, accuracy, tone, and integrity of their review reports.
• ICMJE says reviewer instructions should include guidance about AI use and emphasizes strict manuscript confidentiality in peer review; major-publisher guidance is even more explicit that reviewers should not upload manuscripts into generative AI systems (https://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/responsibilities-in-the-submission-and-peer-peview-process.html?utm) (https://www.icmje.org/icmje-recommendations.pdf?utm).
8. Policy for Editors and Editorial Staff
• Editors and editorial staff shall preserve the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts and all associated editorial communications throughout the submission, review, revision, decision, and post-publication processes.
• Editors and editorial staff must not upload manuscripts, peer-review reports, editorial assessments, rebuttal letters, decision letters, unpublished data, or confidential correspondence into public or non-approved AI tools.
• AI tools must not be used to make or determine editorial decisions, including decisions relating to peer review, revision, acceptance, rejection, correction, expression of concern, withdrawal, or retraction.
• Editorial decisions must be made solely by qualified human editors on the basis of scholarly merit, ethical compliance, and the Journal’s editorial policies.
• The Journal may use internal screening or integrity-support tools for administrative purposes, including plagiarism checks, reference verification, and image screening, but such tools do not replace human editorial oversight.
9. Confidentiality, Data Protection, and Rights Protection
• No person involved in the Journal’s publication process shall use AI in a manner that compromises confidentiality, privacy, data protection obligations, copyright, licensing rights, trade secrets, or intellectual property rights.
• This prohibition includes, but is not limited to, uploading unpublished manuscripts, identifiable personal data, patient data, reviewer identities, proprietary datasets, or confidential editorial records into systems whose storage, retention, training, or reuse practices are not explicitly approved by the Journal.
• Any breach of confidentiality arising from the use of AI may be treated as a serious breach of publication ethics.
• These safeguards are consistent with publication-ethics guidance that journal policies should clearly describe responsibilities of authors, editors, and reviewers and protect the scholarly record (https://www.oaspa.org/resources/principles-of-transparency-and-best-practice-in-scholarly-publishing/?utm).
10. Monitoring, Investigation, and Corrective Action
• NanoNEXT reserves the right to screen submitted and published content for undisclosed or inappropriate AI use through editorial review, similarity assessment, image inspection, metadata checks, source verification, or other research-integrity procedures.
• Where concerns arise, the Journal may request clarification, underlying files, original figures, source materials, earlier manuscript versions, prompt-related information, code, or any other information reasonably required to assess compliance with this Policy.
• Suspected breaches of this Policy shall be handled in accordance with the Journal’s publication-ethics and misconduct procedures.
• Depending on the seriousness of the breach, the Journal may take one or more of the following actions:
  request correction or clarification prior to review;
  b. return the manuscript for policy compliance;
  c. reject the manuscript;
  d. suspend review or editorial processing;
  e. withdraw an accepted manuscript;
  f. publish a correction or expression of concern;
  g. retract a published article; and
  h. notify the relevant institution, employer, funder, or other appropriate authority where warranted.
11. International Guidance and Standards
NanoNEXT’s publication ethics and AI-related policies are informed by internationally recognized guidance and best-practice resources, including COPE, DOAJ, OASPA, WAME, ICMJE, and relevant Elsevier/Scopus policy resources. These include:
1. COPE / DOAJ / OASPA / WAME, Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing (https://publicationethics.org/guidance/cope-position/authorship-and-ai-tools?utm).  
2. COPE, Authorship and AI tools (https://publicationethics.org/guidance/cope-position/authorship-and-ai-tools?utm).  
3. COPE, Artificial Intelligence resources (https://publicationethics.org/cope-focus/artificial-intelligence?utm).  
4. ICMJE, Use of Artificial Intelligence in Publishing (https://www.icmje.org/recommendations/?utm) (https://www.icmje.org/icmje-recommendations.pdf?utm).  
5. ICMJE, Use of AI by Authors (https://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/artificial-intelligence/ai-use-by-authors.html?utm).
6. ICMJE, Responsibilities in the Submission and Peer-Review Process (https://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/responsibilities-in-the-submission-and-peer-peview-process.html?utm).  
7. Elsevier, Publishing Ethics (https://www.elsevier.com/about/policies-and-standards/publishing-ethics?utm).