Use of Artificial Intelligence

RELART adheres to the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) and the good practices promoted by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) regarding the use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools in scholarly communication.

Scope

The use of AI systems—particularly those with generative capabilities (language models, image generation tools, or automated data analysis tools)—must be explicitly disclosed whenever they have been involved in any stage of manuscript preparation, including:

  • Writing, editing, or proofreading text.
  • Translation or reformulation of content.
  • Data analysis, processing, or visualization.
  • Generation of images, figures, tables, or other resources.
  • Assistance in literature review or information synthesis.

Authors’ Responsibilities

The use of AI tools does not replace authorship or intellectual responsibility. Authors remain fully responsible for:

  • The accuracy, integrity, and originality of the content.
  • The verification of data, citations, and references.
  • The absence of bias, errors, or fabricated information.

Authors must clearly disclose which tools were used, for what purpose, and the extent of their contribution to the development of the work.

The automatic generation of scientific content without human supervision and critical validation is not permitted.

Transparency

Information regarding the use of AI must be included in the manuscript in the appropriate section according to its purpose:

  • When used for writing or editing, it must be disclosed in the Acknowledgments section.
  • When used for data analysis, generation of results, or figures, it must be described in the Methods section.

Editorial Management and Peer Review

Editors and reviewers must not use AI tools in ways that compromise the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts. If support tools are used, academic evaluation and editorial decisions may not be delegated to such tools.

Ethical Principles

The following are considered inappropriate practices:

  • The generation of non-existent content, data, or references.
  • The manipulation of images or results using AI without explicit disclosure.
  • Failure to disclose the use of AI tools.

Improper use of these technologies may be considered an ethical violation and may result in manuscript rejection or other editorial actions.

Use and Citation of AI Tools

At the time of submission, authors must disclose whether they have used artificial intelligence tools and describe their use. This information may be included in the submission letter. It must also be disclosed in the appropriate section of the manuscript.

AI tools should not be considered primary sources of scientific knowledge or authors of scholarly works. Their mention should be limited to methodological or descriptive purposes.

Example (methodological use)

  1. OpenAI. ChatGPT (July 15, 2023 version) [large language model]. San Francisco (CA): OpenAI; 2023 [cited 2026 Mar 24]. Available from: https://chat.openai.com

Example of in-text citation

“…an artificial intelligence tool was used to assist with writing (1).”