This policy is consistent with the guidance of COPE, WAME and ICMJE and with the DOAJ best practice on artificial intelligence.

For authors

•     Generative AI tools (such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or Copilot) cannot be listed as authors or cited as authors.

•     Authors must disclose any use of generative AI beyond basic language correction, spelling and formatting — for example for drafting text, summarising literature, coding, data analysis, translation of instruments or creating figures. Name the tool, version and purpose in the Methods or Acknowledgements.

•     Authors are fully responsible for all content. AI-generated text, references and analyses must be checked for accuracy; fabricated or incorrect references are treated as misconduct.

•     AI-generated or AI-altered images and photographs are not permitted, except where AI is the subject of the research and fully described.

•     Identifiable participant data must not be entered into AI tools that do not guarantee confidentiality and compliance with consent and data protection law.

•     When AI or a language model is the subject of the research (rather than a writing aid), its use is part of the Methods and must be reported in full, following the Author Instructions and the relevant reporting guideline (e.g., TRIPOD+AI, TRIPOD-LLM, CLAIM, DECIDE-AI or CONSORT-AI), including data sources, validation, and performance across population groups.

For reviewers and editors

•     Do not upload manuscripts, data, figures or review reports into generative AI tools.

•     Reviews and decisions must reflect human expert judgement.

•     Editors may use AI-assisted tools approved by the publisher for integrity screening (e.g., similarity or image checks); these tools do not make decisions.