Examples
Worked examples
- Is an instance
'The authors used ChatGPT-4 (OpenAI, accessed March 2024) to improve the readability of the Introduction; all content was reviewed and edited by the authors.'
Counter-examples
Looks similar, but isn't
- Not an instance
'AI was used in preparing this manuscript' (too vague to be operational)
Editorial commentary
AI tool disclosure is a statement within a scholarly work that identifies which generative AI tools were used, the version, the scope of use (for example, language editing, code generation, or figure creation), and which sections were affected — sufficient for a reader to assess the AI’s role in producing the work.
What counts as sufficient disclosure
The minimum that satisfies most journal and funder policies includes four elements: the tool’s name and provider, the version or date of access, the purpose of use, and the locus of use within the manuscript (which sections, which figures). Best practice goes further and adds the prompts used (or a representative sample) plus an explicit statement that the human authors verified the AI-generated output before it was incorporated. A generic statement such as “AI was used in the preparation of this manuscript,” with no tool named and no scope stated, fails the operational test most editorial policies now apply — it doesn’t give a reader enough information to judge what role the AI actually played.
How this differs from the disclosure statement itself
AI tool disclosure is the content requirement — what has to be said. A generative-AI disclosure statement is the structural convention some journals require for where that content goes — a dedicated, labelled section rather than scattered mentions in the methods or acknowledgements. A manuscript can satisfy the disclosure requirement (say enough) while still failing a specific journal’s format requirement (say it in the wrong place), and vice versa.
Sources
ICMJE Recommendations (2023 update, generative AI); COPE Position Statement, “Authorship and AI Tools” (13 February 2023).
Also known as
AI use statement · Generative AI declaration
Machine-readable encodings
Use in your systems
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"datePublished": "2026-05-21T01:54:24",
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