AI Policy

AI Policy

The International Journal of Neurology recognizes that technological innovations, including Large Language Models (LLMs) and Generative AI, are becoming integral to medical research and scientific writing. This policy aims to support authors while ensuring that the use of these tools does not compromise the accuracy, ethics, and transparency required in neurological scholarship.

1. Core Principles

  • Transparency: Authors must disclose the use of AI systems in the Methods section of their manuscript. This transparency allows editors, reviewers, and readers to evaluate how the technology influenced the research design, data analysis, or manuscript preparation.

  • Authorship & Responsibility: AI tools do not meet the criteria for authorship. Authors retain full responsibility for the final product, ensuring it contains original analysis, synthesis, and clinical critique. The AI system must not be listed as an author or in the references.

  • Scientific Accuracy: Given the risk of "hallucinations" or incorrect outputs, all AI-generated content—especially clinical data, neuroimaging interpretations, and citations—must be meticulously reviewed to ensure alignment with scholarly literature and clinical reality.

  • Bioethics and Privacy: Authors must ensure that any use of AI to analyze patient data or human subject research complies with institutional review board (IRB) approvals and protects patient confidentiality. The inherent biases of the AI tools used must be addressed in the Limitations section.

2. Disclosure in the Methods Section

If AI technologies were used in any step of the research or writing process, authors must provide a detailed description within the Methods section. This disclosure should include:

  1. The specific name and version of the AI tool.

  2. The extent of its use (e.g., text generation, research design, data analysis, or visualization).

  3. The specific purpose within the study.

Note: Disclosure is not expected for standard tools used for basic spelling and grammar correction unless they have performed substantive re-writing beyond the sentence level.

3. Editorial and Reviewer Commitments

  • Confidentiality: To protect the work of our authors, manuscripts submitted to the International Journal of Neurology will not be fed into AI tools for summarization or review.

  • Human-Led Peer Review: Reviewers are strictly prohibited from using AI to generate evaluation reports and must not upload manuscript content into public or external AI systems.

This journal explicitly aligns with Elsevier’s guidance on the ethical, transparent, and responsible use of AI technologies in scientific publishing.

These guidelines can be reviewed here: https://www.elsevier.com/about/policies-and-standards/generative-ai-policies-for-journals

In case of disputes or uncertainty regarding AI use, this editorial office will apply the standards established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME).
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