The convention, codified by ICMJE and COPE (2023), that AI tool use must be disclosed in the methods or acknowledgements section of a scholarly work rather than via the author byline or CRediT contributor list, because AI cannot satisfy authorship's accountability requirements.

ByCASRAI Editorial Board

· Last updated 21 May 2026

Examples

Worked examples

Is an instance
A methods statement: 'ChatGPT-4 was used to draft initial code for data cleaning; all code was reviewed and tested by the authors.'

Counter-examples

Looks similar, but isn't

Not an instance
Listing 'ChatGPT' in the CRediT contributor list as 'Writing — original draft' (rejected practice)

Editorial commentary

The acknowledgement-not-authorship rule has two consequences: (1) it precludes attempts to credit AI as a co-author; (2) it requires that AI use nevertheless be recorded transparently in a fixed location within the work. Acknowledging an AI tool does not transfer responsibility — the human authors remain accountable.

References

ICMJE Recommendations (2023 update)
COPE Position Statement on Authorship and AI Tools (2023)

Also known as

AI acknowledgement convention

Machine-readable encodings

Use in your systems

JATS XML <role> element

xml

<role vocab="credit"
      vocab-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/"
      vocab-term="Acknowledgement (vs authorship for AI)"
      vocab-term-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/acknowledgement-vs-authorship-for-ai" />

Schema.org DefinedTerm (JSON-LD)

json

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "DefinedTerm",
  "@id": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/acknowledgement-vs-authorship-for-ai",
  "name": "Acknowledgement (vs authorship for AI)",
  "identifier": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/acknowledgement-vs-authorship-for-ai",
  "description": "The convention, codified by ICMJE and COPE (2023), that AI tool use must be disclosed in the methods or acknowledgements section of a scholarly work rather than via the author byline or CRediT contributor list, because AI cannot satisfy authorship's accountability requirements.",
  "inDefinedTermSet": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/domain/genai-disclosure#set",
  "url": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/acknowledgement-vs-authorship-for-ai",
  "sameAs": [
    "AI acknowledgement convention"
  ],
  "license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "publisher": {
    "@id": "https://casrai.org/#organization"
  },
  "dateModified": "2026-05-21T01:56:06",
  "inLanguage": "en"
}

Referenced across the research world

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