Artificial Intelligence (AI) Usage Guidelines

Artificial Intelligence (AI) Usage Guidelines Journal of Agricultural Research and Extension Maejo University

To maintain academic standards, transparency, and scholarly integrity, the Journal of Agricultural Research and Extension has established the following guidelines regarding the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the preparation and peer-review processes of manuscripts.

Ethics for Authors

  1. Ineligibility for Authorship: AI tools cannot be listed as an author or co-author. All legal and academic responsibilities rest solely with human authors.

  2. Transparent Disclosure: If AI is used for drafting content, data analysis, or generating figures (excluding basic grammar checks), the specific tool name, version, and purpose must be clearly stated in the manuscript.

  3. Ultimate Accountability for Content and Data: Authors are entirely responsible for the accuracy of all data within the manuscript and must ensure that AI does not generate fabricated data or distort experimental results.

  4. Prevention of Copyright Infringement: Authors must verify that AI-generated text or images do not constitute plagiarism or violate the intellectual property rights of others.

  5. Integrity of Visual Materials: The use of AI to enhance scientific photographs or charts is permitted solely for clarity improvements. Modifications that alter the academic meaning or factual representation are strictly prohibited.

Ethics for the Editorial Board

  1. Primary Reliance on Human Judgment: The Editorial Board may use AI for preliminary manuscript screening; however, final decisions regarding acceptance or rejection must be made solely through human editorial judgment.

  2. Strict Confidentiality: To prevent research data leaks, uploading manuscripts or unpublished data into public AI systems is strictly prohibited.

  3. Verification of Disclosure: The Editorial Board is responsible for ensuring that authors transparently declare their AI usage within the manuscript prior to publication.

  4. Fair Handling of Misconduct: If misuse of AI (such as fabricated data generation) is detected, the Editorial Board must investigate and retract the article in accordance with international standards.

  5. Policy Modernization: The Editorial Board must continuously monitor technological trends and international ethical standards to keep the journal's policies up to date.

Ethics for Reviewers

  1. Prohibition of AI-Authored Review Reports: Reviewers must write evaluations and review reports based on their own expertise and experience, and must not delegate the report writing to AI.

  2. Preservation of Research Confidentiality: Reviewers must not input text, content, or outlines of manuscripts under review into AI systems for summarization or translation purposes.

  3. Impartial Evaluation: Evaluations must be grounded in academic principles and empirical evidence, without using AI to generate biased critiques or fault-finding.

  4. Reporting Anomalies: Reviewers should promptly notify the Editorial Board if there is any suspicion of AI misuse in the manuscript, such as hallucinated or non-existent references.

  5. Declaration of Supporting Tools: If the use of automated tools or specialized AI is necessary to assist with statistical or data verification, reviewers must disclose this to the Editorial Board within the review report.