Acknowledging the assistive function and operational convenience brought by AI Tools, especially in substantive writing workload, the authors are permitted to utilize routine functions such as grammar/style enhancement, formatting and citation checking, translating, summarizing, language editing and word count checking. Moreover, nonroutine functions such as generating table, chart, and graph using AI are also allowed provided that the AI Tool used in the process is cited in accordance with AI Tool citation conventions of the specific journal (i.e. MLA, APA, CHICAGO).

It must be noted that an AI Tool is a non-legal entity and therefore must not be listed as author or co-author. The author/s assume responsibility of any assets created through or by the AI Tool in terms of accuracy, correctness, validity and sensitivity of the corresponding information, including ethical compliance

The authors must disclose the use of AI by providing the following details in the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Use Declaration Form — (a) name of AI Tool, (b) purpose of use (c) sections of the text where AI was involved or applied, and (d) the extent of use, gauged in three levels: minimal, moderate, and heavy.

Data fabrication and any type of unethical data creation, fake references, and literature are prohibited. In addition, excessive or heavy-AI content generation (i.e. making an entire manuscript from AI Tool) is forbidden. A human oversight should always be upheld to vet the AI content. The AI tool shall not be considered a proxy for a peer-reviewer and must not be used for critical analysis and evaluation of data or researched materials. Furthermore, the authors should be cautious in using AI tool to probe confidential materials and unpublished documents in view of the data ingestion. Finally, the author/s must not use AI tool to plagiarize, and in turn must be wary against AI hallucination

The peer reviewers are bound by ethical parameters in handling the manuscript by not uploading it to AI programs or using such to generate a full peer-review report. The use of AI tool for automatic screening of critical components such as ethical implications where the AI program performs a substantive decision-making over risks without human vetting is prohibited. AI tool must ideally be used for routine tasks like grammar check and rephrasing, however, the process should be done with careful vetting.

Editors may utilize AI Tools to manage administrative tasks (i.e. shortlisting reviewers, refining editorial letters, assisting in communication tasks). Further, AI Tools can be used by editors for manuscript management in case the USC Publishing House Manuscript Management System is not available. However, editors are prohibited from excessively producing AI-generated content where majority of their editorial report and decisions are made by AI.

In terms of data privacy, the authors, reviewers, and editors should be circumvent in feeding discreet information to AI programs, due to the tendency of the latter to collect and store data and metadata in third-party servers. The same caution is advised in uploading materials (to AI servers) that are covered by Intellectual Property (IP) and Data Privacy Law. A thorough review and validation of AI-generated content is important to address possible copyright infringement, recognizing that some AI assets like images may be based on copyrighted artworks and styles.

In case the author failed to properly disclose the use of AI, and their work/s has/have been found in violation of the ethical use of AI Tools, the EIC reserves the right to reject or retract the material, if already published. On the other hand, reviewers who failed to observe responsible use of AI will be removed from the pool of reviewers maintained by the journal. Prior to any sanction, a thorough investigation and assessment of the violation will be done; and in such process, proper documentation and a detailed report to the editorial board and USC Publishing House Management will be prepared by the EIC of the journal. This report will be used as a basis for strengthening future compliance.