Applied Environmental Research (AER) recognizes the increasing use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in research and scholarly communication. While AI tools may assist authors in improving the clarity and efficiency of manuscript preparation, they do not replace human expertise, scientific judgment, or ethical responsibility.

This policy establishes the journal's requirements for the responsible, transparent, and ethical use of generative AI technologies throughout the publication process. It is intended to promote transparency, accountability, research integrity, reproducibility, confidentiality, and responsible innovation.

Definitions

• Generative AI: Systems capable of generating text, images, code, audio, or other content.
• AI-assisted technologies: Software that supports authors, reviewers, or editors in performing specific tasks.
• Substantial AI use: AI used beyond routine grammar or spelling correction.

General Principles

• The authors are fully responsible for all the submitted content.
• Human accountability is mandatory for every published article.
• AI cannot qualify for authorship.
• Transparency regarding AI use is needed.
• Scientific integrity overrides the efficiency gained through AI.
• Confidential editorial materials must never be disclosed to public AI systems.
• Editorial decisions are made exclusively by human editors.

Policy for Authors

• Permitted uses include language editing, translation, coding assistance, literature organization, data visualization, programming support, and workflow automation.
• Conditional uses: AI-assisted statistical analyses or environmental modeling are acceptable only when methods are validated and reproducible.
• Prohibited uses: fabrication or falsification of data, references, peer-review reports, images, or scientific conclusions.
• Substantial AI use (drafting text, code generation, analysis assistance, figures, tables, or summaries) must be disclosed in an AI Declaration.
• Scientific interpretation, conclusions, references, and ethical compliance remain the sole responsibility of the authors.
• The authors remain responsible for accuracy, originality, ethics approval, copyright compliance, and disclosure.

AI Disclosure Requirements

Substantial AI use must be disclosed in a dedicated “Declaration of the use of generative AI and AI-assisted technologies” section.

Recommended statement:

During the preparation of this manuscript, the authors used [tool, version, developer] for [purpose]. All AI-generated outputs were critically reviewed, verified, and revised by the authors. The authors accept full responsibility for the published work.

AI-generated images, figures and graphical abstracts

• AER does not accept AI-generated graphical abstracts representing scientific findings.
• AI-generated scientific figures, illustrations, microscopy images, maps, spectra, or experimental visualizations are not permitted unless explicitly approved by the Editor and fully disclosed.
• Image enhancement must not alter scientific interpretation.
• Editors may request original raw image files.

Supplementary Materials

• AI-generated code, prompts, workflows, datasets, or supplementary analyses must be identified.
• Authors should provide sufficient documentation to enable reproducibility.
• Editors may request source code, prompts, model settings, or computational workflows.

Policy for Reviewers

• Peer reviewers must maintain strict confidentiality.
• Reviewers must not upload confidential manuscripts into public AI systems.
• AI may be used only when confidentiality is fully protected and institutional policies permit.
• AI must not generate the final peer-review recommendation without substantive human evaluation.
• Reviewers remain solely responsible for review quality and recommendations.

AI-assisted peer review

• AI may assist with language improvement, structure, or administrative support.
• AI must not independently evaluate novelty, significance, or publication suitability.
• Scientific judgment remains exclusively with human reviewers and editors.
• Final recommendations and editorial decisions must always be made by qualified human reviewers and editors.

Policy for Editors

• Editors may use AI for manuscript triage, reviewer discovery, plagiarism-support workflows, metadata generation, and administrative tasks.
• Editors must verify any AI-assisted output before use.
• Editorial decisions must never be delegated to AI.

Permitted and Prohibited Uses

Activity	Permitted	Conditions
Language editing	Yes	Human verification
Translation	Yes	Accuracy checked
Code generation	Yes	Validation required
Statistical assistance	Yes	Methods disclosed when substantial
Drafting manuscript text	Yes	Disclosure required
Graphical abstract generation	No	Unless editor-approved and disclosed
Scientific image fabrication	No	Strictly prohibited
Reference generation without verification	No	Strictly prohibited
Peer-review recommendation by AI	No	Human judgment required

Research Integrity and Misconduct

• AI must not be used to fabricate data, references, images, citations, peer-review reports, or research findings.
• Violations may result in rejection, correction, retraction, notification of institutions, or other actions consistent with COPE guidance.

Compliance

Submission to the AER confirms compliance with this policy. The journal reserves the right to request clarification or supporting documentation regarding AI use at any stage of editorial assessment.

Noncompliance

• Clarification request
• Revision request
• Rejection
• Retraction
• Notification of institutions or funders when appropriate