Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Automated Tools Policy

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Automated Tools Policy

The Journal of Agribusiness and Social Sciences (JASS) recognizes that artificial intelligence (AI), including generative AI and AI-assisted technologies, is increasingly used in academic writing, editing, research, and scholarly communication. JASS permits limited and responsible use of AI tools where such use supports language quality and presentation without compromising research integrity, originality, authorship, confidentiality, or accountability.

This policy should be read together with the JASS Ethics Policy, Ethics, Integrity & Retraction Policy, Peer Review Policy, and Author Guidelines. JASS follows a double-blind peer-review process and requires authors, reviewers, and editors to maintain confidentiality, academic integrity, fairness, and transparency throughout publication.

1. For Authors

Authors may use AI-assisted tools only for limited language and presentation purposes, including grammar, spelling, punctuation, and language correction; improving clarity, readability, and sentence structure; translation or language assistance; and formatting and other routine editorial support.

AI tools must not be used to generate or substantially develop the scientific or scholarly content of a manuscript, including research questions, hypotheses, theoretical arguments, methodological decisions, scientific interpretations, conclusions, or original research content.

AI tools must not be used to: fabricate, manipulate, or alter research data or results; generate fictitious references, citations, sources, or quotations; create misleading scientific claims or unsupported interpretations; replace the intellectual contribution or judgment of the authors; generate authorship or be listed as an author; and conceal plagiarism, duplicate publication, or other forms of academic misconduct.

Where AI-assisted tools have been used in preparing the manuscript, their use must be transparently disclosed in the manuscript. The disclosure should identify the tool and briefly state the purpose for which it was used.

A suitable disclosure may read:

AI Use Disclosure: The authors used (please mention the name of AI tool) for language editing and/or grammar improvement. The authors reviewed and verified all AI-assisted output and remain fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, integrity, and content of the manuscript.

Authors remain fully responsible for everything submitted to JASS, including any text, analysis, references, tables, figures, interpretations, and conclusions produced or modified with AI assistance.

AI-generated material must not be treated as an authoritative scholarly source. Authors are responsible for locating, reading, verifying, and appropriately citing the original scholarly sources on which their work is based.

Authors must also exercise caution when using AI tools with unpublished research, confidential information, personal data, proprietary datasets, identifiable participant information, or other sensitive material. Such information must not be uploaded to public or unauthorized AI systems.

Undisclosed or inappropriate use of AI that results in plagiarism, fabricated information, falsified data, misleading scholarship, or other research misconduct may be investigated under JASS's existing publication ethics and research-integrity procedures. JASS already prohibits plagiarism, data fabrication/falsification, redundant publication, and other forms of research misconduct.

2. For Reviewers

JASS operates a double-blind peer-review process, and reviewers are required to maintain strict confidentiality concerning manuscripts, supplementary materials, review correspondence, and unpublished research information.

Reviewers must not upload or submit manuscripts, unpublished data, tables, figures, supplementary files, reviewer comments, or other confidential material to public or unauthorized generative AI tools.

Reviewers should not use generative AI to generate, replace, or substantially prepare their peer-review reports. Peer review requires the reviewer's own expert judgment concerning scientific and scholarly rigor; originality and contribution; methodology and analysis; interpretation of findings; ethical compliance; limitations and strengths; and relevance to agribusiness, agricultural economics, rural development, social sciences, or related fields.

Limited use of AI for language correction or formatting of a reviewer's own text may be acceptable only where no confidential manuscript material is disclosed to the AI system. The reviewer remains entirely responsible for the accuracy, fairness, confidentiality, and substance of the review.

AI tools must never be used to independently determine whether a manuscript should be accepted, revised, or rejected. The editorial decision remains the responsibility of the authorized JASS editor.

Reviewers must continue to comply with JASS requirements concerning confidentiality, conflicts of interest, objective and constructive assessment, and timely submission of reviews.

3. For Editors and the Journal

JASS may use AI-assisted or automated technologies for appropriate administrative, technical, and editorial-support functions, provided that such use does not compromise confidentiality, editorial independence, peer-review integrity, or scholarly judgment. Permitted applications may include routine language or formatting support; workflow and administrative assistance; reference or metadata checking; similarity or plagiarism screening; technical quality-control procedures; and identification of possible formatting or submission deficiencies.

Automated tools used for plagiarism, similarity, duplicate-publication, image, or other integrity screening are screening aids rather than independent evidence of misconduct. Any potentially significant concern identified through an automated system must be assessed by an appropriately qualified editor or designated authority before an editorial action is taken.

AI or automated systems must not independently make or determine editorial acceptance or rejection decisions; peer-review decisions; ethical or misconduct findings; authorship disputes; plagiarism determinations; retractions or expressions of concern; and other consequential decisions affecting authors or the scholarly record.

Editors must not enter confidential manuscripts, unpublished research, reviewer identities, reviewer reports, or sensitive editorial information into public or unauthorized generative AI systems.

Any AI-assisted process that materially influences the editorial or publishing workflow should be subject to appropriate human oversight and, where relevant, transparent disclosure.

The Editor-in-Chief and authorized editorial decision-makers retain full responsibility for all editorial decisions. AI tools may assist editorial work but cannot replace professional judgment, accountability, or editorial independence.

JASS will periodically review this policy as AI technologies, scholarly publishing practices, and international standards develop.