1. Purpose and Scope

The International Journal of Multilingualism and Languages for Specific Purposes (IJMLSP) is committed to maintaining high standards of authorship, transparency, research integrity, and responsible use of artificial intelligence technologies. This policy establishes the journal's expectations regarding authorship, the use of artificial intelligence (AI), including generative AI (GenAI), manuscript preparation, research activities, peer review, and publication.

The use of AI-assisted technologies is not, in itself, a reason for rejection. However, such use must be appropriate, transparent, and consistent with scholarly, ethical, copyright, confidentiality, and research-integrity requirements. Regardless of the technologies used, human authors remain fully responsible for the scholarly content and integrity of their work.

2. Authorship Principles

IJMLSP considers authorship to be a scholarly responsibility rather than an honorary designation. Individuals listed as authors must have made a substantial contribution to the conception, design, execution, analysis, interpretation, or development of the research and must participate meaningfully in the preparation or critical revision of the manuscript.

All authors are expected to:

• Approve the manuscript submitted to IJMLSP;
• Approve the final version before publication;
• Agree to be accountable for their contribution to the work;
• Cooperate with reasonable requests concerning research integrity;
• Ensure that the manuscript accurately represents their contribution.

5. Changes in Authorship

IJMLSP does not normally determine author order. Any change in authorship after submission, including the addition, removal, or rearrangement of authors, requires written agreement from all affected authors and may require editorial approval. The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that any proposed change is properly documented.

6. Artificial Intelligence: General Principle

Artificial intelligence tools, including generative AI systems, may assist researchers with certain scholarly and editorial tasks. However, AI tools cannot be listed as authors because they cannot assume responsibility for the accuracy, originality, integrity, ethical compliance, or final interpretation of scholarly work.

The use of AI must not replace the intellectual contribution, scholarly judgment, or accountability of human authors.

7. Acceptable Uses of AI-Assisted Tools

Subject to appropriate disclosure where applicable, authors may use AI-assisted tools for activities such as:

• Language correction, grammar improvement, and stylistic refinement;
• Translation assistance;
• Brainstorming and development of preliminary ideas;
• Coding and programming assistance;
• Data-processing assistance;
• Literature organization and information management;
• Formatting and presentation assistance;
• Other limited forms of editorial or technical assistance that do not replace scholarly judgment.

10. AI-Generated References and Scholarly Verification

Authors are responsible for verifying every citation and reference included in their manuscript. AI systems may generate inaccurate, incomplete, misleading, or nonexistent bibliographic references. Authors must therefore independently verify bibliographic information before submission. Any fabricated or inaccurate references resulting from failure to verify AI-generated output remain the responsibility of the authors.

11. AI-Generated Images, Synthetic Data, and Other Materials

AI-generated images, synthetic data, or other AI-generated materials must be clearly identified when their use could affect the interpretation, reproducibility, or integrity of the research. Authors must comply with applicable copyright, licensing, ethical, privacy, and research-integrity requirements. AI-generated material must not be presented as empirical evidence when it does not represent actual observations or authentic research data.

12. Confidentiality, Privacy, and Data Protection

Authors must not upload confidential manuscript materials, unpublished research, peer-review reports, personal data, proprietary information, participant information, or other restricted material to external AI systems when doing so would violate confidentiality, privacy, contractual, institutional, or ethical requirements.

Authors remain responsible for ensuring that AI-assisted research and manuscript preparation comply with applicable data-protection and research-ethics requirements.

13. AI and Peer Review

Reviewers must not upload confidential manuscripts, unpublished manuscript content, reviewer reports, or other confidential peer-review materials into generative AI systems when doing so could compromise confidentiality or the integrity of the review process.

Reviewers remain responsible for maintaining confidentiality, providing independent and objective evaluations, and protecting unpublished scholarly information entrusted to them.

14. AI Disclosure Statement

Where generative AI has been used substantively, authors should provide a clear disclosure identifying the tool and describing its role. An appropriate statement may read:

Where no generative AI was used, authors may state:

15. Editorial Assessment of AI Use

IJMLSP may request clarification regarding disclosed or suspected AI use where necessary to assess:

• Accuracy and reliability;
• Originality and authorship;
• Research integrity;
• Confidentiality and privacy;
• Copyright and licensing;
• Transparency of the research process;
• Compliance with applicable ethical standards.

The use of AI is not automatically grounds for rejection. However, concealed, inappropriate, deceptive, or misleading use of AI may constitute a publication-ethics concern and may result in editorial action, including requests for clarification or revision, rejection, or other measures where warranted.

16. Human Accountability

Regardless of the tools used in research or manuscript preparation, authors remain fully responsible for:

• The accuracy and reliability of the manuscript;
• The originality of the work;
• Proper attribution and citation;
• Research integrity and ethical compliance;
• Verification of references and sources;
• The validity of the analysis and interpretation;
• The final conclusions and scholarly claims.

17. Authors’ Confirmation

• All listed authors have made an appropriate scholarly contribution and approve the submitted manuscript.
• No individual has been included or excluded from authorship inappropriately.
• AI tools have not been listed as authors.
• Any substantive use of generative AI has been appropriately disclosed.
• AI-assisted content, citations, data, images, and other outputs have been independently verified where applicable.
• The manuscript complies with applicable confidentiality, copyright, ethical, and research-integrity requirements.
• All authors accept responsibility for the accuracy, originality, integrity, and final interpretation of the work.

Signature of Corresponding Author:

Date of Declaration:

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