Generative AI and AI-Assisted Technologies Policy

The Journal of Educational Research and Practice (JERP) recognises that generative artificial intelligence (AI) and AI-assisted technologies may support certain aspects of research and manuscript preparation. Their use must, however, remain transparent, responsible, and consistent with scholarly and publication-ethics standards.

Authorship and Responsibility

AI systems cannot be listed as authors or co-authors.

Human authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, integrity, attribution, ethical compliance, and final content of all submitted material, including content produced or modified with AI assistance.

Permitted Use

Basic mechanical or linguistic assistance, such as spelling correction, grammar improvement, formatting, and minor readability enhancement, does not require disclosure where it does not generate substantive scholarly content.

Generative AI may be used for legitimate scholarly purposes provided that its use does not replace the authors’ intellectual responsibility or scholarly judgement.

Disclosure of Substantive AI Use

Substantive use of generative AI or AI-assisted technologies must be disclosed transparently. This includes use for:

drafting or substantial rewriting of manuscript content;
literature synthesis or reference discovery;
research design or methodological support;
coding, data analysis, or interpretation;
translation of substantive scholarly content; or
generation or substantial modification of figures, images, or other visual materials.

Where relevant, authors should identify the AI tool used and briefly describe its purpose.

Prohibited Uses

AI must not be used to:

fabricate or falsify data, evidence, quotations, references, citations, participant responses, or research findings;
conceal plagiarism or inappropriate reuse of existing material;
misrepresent AI-generated content as independently produced scholarly evidence; or
replace human responsibility for interpretation, evaluation, and conclusions.

Authors must verify all AI-assisted outputs and all cited sources against the original materials.

AI-Generated Visual Materials

AI-generated or substantially AI-modified visual materials may be considered where they are academically justified, transparently disclosed, and clearly labelled.

Such materials must not misrepresent empirical evidence, research participants, data, or findings.

Reviewers and Editors

Submitted manuscripts and associated materials are confidential.

Reviewers and editors must not upload unpublished manuscripts, figures, data, reviewer reports, or confidential editorial correspondence to external AI systems where doing so could compromise confidentiality, intellectual property, or data protection.

AI must not replace independent scholarly judgement in peer review or editorial decision-making.

Declaration

Where substantive AI use has occurred, authors should include a declaration such as:

Declaration of Generative AI and AI-Assisted Technologies:
During the preparation of this work, the author(s) used [tool/provider] for [purpose]. The output was reviewed and verified by the author(s), who remain fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, integrity, and final content of the article.

No declaration is required for basic spelling, grammar, formatting, or minor language editing that does not generate substantive scholarly content.