This policy refers to guidance from COPE (Artificial intelligence and authorship), WAME (Chatbots, generative AI, and scholarly manuscripts), STM (Recommendations for classifying AI use in academic manuscript preparation), and Elsevier (Generative AI policies for journals).

1. Purpose and Scope

Hasanuddin Journal of Public Health (HJPH) recognizes that generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools, including large language models (LLMs) and multimodal models (e.g., ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Claude, DeepSeek), can support research and writing. These tools also carry risks: inaccurate or fabricated content (hallucinations), bias, missing or false citations, breaches of confidentiality and personal data protection, and unclear intellectual property status.

This policy applies to authors, reviewers, and editors. It is aligned with the recommendations of COPE, WAME, and STM on the use of AI in scholarly publishing, and will be revised as technology and ethical standards evolve. Its core principles are human accountability, transparency, confidentiality, and research integrity.

2. Policy for Authors

2.1 Authorship

AI tools must not be listed as authors or co-authors, nor cited as authors. They cannot take responsibility for the work, consent to publication, or manage copyright and licensing. Authors remain fully responsible for the originality, accuracy, validity, and integrity of the manuscript, including any content produced with AI assistance.

2.2 Permitted use (with disclosure)

Authors may use generative AI tools for the following purposes, provided all output is critically reviewed, verified, and edited by the authors:

• Improving language, grammar, and readability;

• idea generation and exploration;

• literature searching and classification with AI-enhanced search tools (all references must be verified against original sources);

• coding assistance for data analysis (e.g., R, Stata, Python), provided the authors understand, test, and can reproduce the analysis.

2.3 Use that does not require disclosure

Basic spelling and grammar checkers, reference managers (e.g., Mendeley), and similarity-checking tools (e.g., Turnitin) do not need to be declared.

2.4 Prohibited use

Authors must not use generative AI to:

Generate, fabricate, falsify, or alter research data or results, including replacing missing data with synthetic data without a rigorous methodology that is part of the study design and fully described;
create or manipulate images and figures (photographs, charts, graphs, and other visuals), including enhancing, removing, or adding features;
generate the interpretation of findings, discussion, or conclusions without substantive intellectual input from the authors;
produce references or citations that have not been verified by the authors;
process identifiable or sensitive data (e.g., respondent or patient identities, medical records, personal health information, unpublished data) using tools that do not guarantee confidentiality and data security. Authors must comply with the ethical approval and informed consent conditions of their study.

AI use that is an explicit part of the research design (e.g., AI-based analysis in a health information systems study) is permitted only if fully described in the Methods section (tool name, version, developer, settings or prompts, and validation procedures).

2.5 Disclosure requirement

Authors must include a Declaration of Generative AI Use before the References section stating: (a) the name, version, and developer of the tool; (b) the purpose and the part of the manuscript concerned; and (c) that the authors reviewed the output and take full responsibility for the content.

"During the preparation of this work, the author(s) used [tool name, version, developer] for [purpose]. After using this tool, the author(s) reviewed and edited the content as needed and take full responsibility for the content of the publication."

If no AI tool was used, authors may state: "The authors declare that no generative AI tools were used in the preparation of this manuscript."

3. Policy for Reviewers

• Manuscripts are confidential. Reviewers must not upload a manuscript, or any part of it (text, data, figures, related files), into generative AI tools.

• Reviewers must not use AI to evaluate, summarize, or write the substance of their review.

• AI may be used only to improve the language of the reviewer's own comments, without entering manuscript content. Reviewers remain accountable for the accuracy and integrity of their assessment.

4. Policy for Editors

• Editors must not upload unpublished manuscripts, associated files, reviewer reports, or decision letters into generative AI tools.

• Editorial decisions must be made by humans and must not be delegated to AI.

• Technical screening tools (e.g., similarity checks) may support, but not replace, editorial judgement.

5. Suspected Violations

If AI use is undisclosed or violates this policy, the editors may request clarification and source files, return or reject the manuscript, and, for published articles, issue a correction or retraction and notify the authors' institution, following COPE guidelines.