Artificial Intelligence (AI) Policy

The Indonesian Journal of Educational Science (IJES) recognizes that artificial intelligence technologies can support research, academic writing, data analysis, language improvement, and scholarly communication. However, their use must be transparent, responsible, ethical, and subject to meaningful human oversight.

This policy applies to authors, editors, peer reviewers, and other parties involved in the submission, evaluation, editing, and publication of manuscripts in IJES.

The policy covers generative artificial intelligence, large language models, AI-assisted writing tools, image-generation systems, automated data-analysis applications, coding assistants, translation systems, and other technologies capable of generating or substantially modifying scholarly content.

1. General Principles

The use of artificial intelligence in scholarly publishing must be guided by the following principles:

  • transparency regarding how and where AI tools are used;

  • human responsibility for all submitted and published content;

  • protection of confidentiality, privacy, and intellectual property;

  • verification of the accuracy and validity of AI-assisted outputs;

  • prevention of fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, and misrepresentation;

  • compliance with research ethics and applicable legal requirements; and

  • meaningful human oversight throughout the research and publication process.

Artificial intelligence may support scholarly work, but it must not replace the authors’ intellectual contribution, critical judgment, ethical responsibility, or accountability.

2. Artificial Intelligence and Authorship

Artificial intelligence tools, chatbots, and large language models cannot be listed as authors or co-authors.

Authorship requires the ability to:

  • make a substantial intellectual contribution;

  • approve the final version of the manuscript;

  • accept responsibility for the accuracy and integrity of the work;

  • disclose conflicts of interest;

  • respond to questions concerning the research; and

  • enter into copyright and licensing agreements.

Artificial intelligence systems cannot fulfil these responsibilities and therefore do not meet the criteria for authorship.

Human authors remain fully responsible for all content included in a manuscript, including text, references, data, analysis, code, tables, figures, images, translations, or other materials produced or modified with AI assistance.

3. Permitted Uses of AI by Authors

Authors may use AI tools responsibly to support limited aspects of research and manuscript preparation, including:

  • improving spelling, grammar, and sentence clarity;

  • translating text, subject to careful human verification;

  • assisting with the organization of ideas or manuscript structure;

  • supporting coding or statistical procedures;

  • assisting with data processing or pattern identification;

  • generating search terms for literature exploration;

  • improving the readability of author-generated content; and

  • performing other supporting tasks that remain under meaningful human supervision.

Authors must critically review, verify, and revise all AI-assisted outputs before submission. AI-generated content must not be accepted without independent human evaluation.

The use of AI does not reduce the authors’ responsibility for the originality, accuracy, methodological quality, citations, interpretations, and conclusions of the manuscript.

4. Disclosure of AI Use

Authors must disclose any material use of generative AI or AI-assisted technology in the preparation of a manuscript or the conduct of research.

The disclosure must identify:

  • the name of the AI tool;

  • the developer or provider;

  • the version used, where available;

  • the date or period of use;

  • the purpose for which the tool was used;

  • the sections or elements affected; and

  • how the authors verified and revised the resulting output.

AI use related to research design, data collection, transcription, coding, analysis, simulation, or image production must be explained in the Research Method section.

AI use related to manuscript writing, paraphrasing, translation, or language improvement should be disclosed in an AI Use Declaration placed before the references.

Basic spelling and grammar checking that does not generate or substantially modify intellectual content does not normally require disclosure.

Suggested AI Use Declaration

“The authors acknowledge the use of [name and version of AI tool], developed by [provider], for [specific purpose] during the preparation of this manuscript. All AI-assisted outputs were critically reviewed, verified, and revised by the authors. The authors take full responsibility for the accuracy, originality, integrity, and ethical compliance of the final manuscript.”

When no generative AI tool has been used, authors may state:

“The authors declare that no generative artificial intelligence or AI-assisted technology was used to generate the scholarly content of this manuscript.”

5. Unacceptable Uses of AI

IJES does not permit the use of AI to:

  • generate an entire manuscript with limited or no meaningful human intellectual contribution;

  • fabricate or falsify data, participants, interviews, observations, findings, or research procedures;

  • create false, inaccurate, or nonexistent references;

  • manipulate results to support a predetermined conclusion;

  • conceal plagiarism, duplicate publication, or inappropriate paraphrasing;

  • generate deceptive peer-review reports;

  • misrepresent AI-generated content as entirely human-produced work;

  • create or alter research evidence in a misleading manner;

  • impersonate authors, participants, reviewers, or editors;

  • compromise participant privacy or manuscript confidentiality; or

  • circumvent academic, ethical, editorial, or legal requirements.

Submitting AI-generated content without adequate verification or required disclosure may constitute a violation of publication ethics.

6. Accuracy, References, and Plagiarism

AI tools may generate information that is inaccurate, incomplete, biased, misleading, or entirely fabricated. Authors must independently verify every factual statement, quotation, calculation, interpretation, and reference produced or suggested by AI.

Authors must ensure that:

  • all cited sources exist and are accessible;

  • citations accurately support the relevant statements;

  • reference details and DOI links are correct;

  • quoted and paraphrased materials are appropriately attributed;

  • AI-generated content does not reproduce copyrighted material without permission; and

  • the manuscript does not contain plagiarism or inappropriate text reuse.

AI-generated output must not be treated as an authoritative or primary academic source. An AI tool should only be cited when it is itself the subject or object of the research and the citation is necessary to explain the research method.

7. AI in Research Methods and Data Analysis

When AI is used as part of a research method, authors must provide sufficient information to allow readers to understand and evaluate its role.

The Research Method section should explain:

  • the AI system or model used;

  • the model version and provider;

  • the input data;

  • relevant prompts, parameters, or configurations;

  • validation and verification procedures;

  • the role of human researchers;

  • known limitations or potential biases; and

  • relevant ethical, privacy, and data-security safeguards.

Authors must not enter confidential, personally identifiable, restricted, or sensitive participant data into public AI systems without appropriate consent, ethical approval, legal authority, and adequate data-protection measures.

Authors may be asked to provide relevant prompts, outputs, code, datasets, or documentation when necessary to evaluate the transparency, validity, and reproducibility of the study.

8. AI-Generated and AI-Modified Images

AI must not be used to fabricate, manipulate, obscure, remove, or add features to research images in a manner that could misrepresent the original data or findings.

AI-generated or AI-modified images may only be considered when:

  • their use is directly relevant to the research;

  • the method of creation is transparently disclosed;

  • they do not misrepresent empirical evidence;

  • they comply with copyright and licensing requirements;

  • they do not violate privacy or participant rights; and

  • they are clearly labelled as AI-generated or AI-modified.

Authors remain responsible for obtaining any necessary permissions and ensuring the accuracy, originality, and ethical acceptability of visual materials.

9. Protection of Research Participants

The use of AI in research involving students, teachers, children, or other human participants must comply with applicable ethical and institutional requirements.

Authors must ensure that AI use does not:

  • expose personally identifiable participant information;

  • compromise confidentiality or informed consent;

  • reproduce discriminatory or harmful bias;

  • create deceptive representations of participants;

  • make unsupported high-stakes decisions about individuals; or

  • place children or vulnerable groups at additional risk.

Where relevant, informed-consent documents should explain how participant data will be processed using AI technologies.

10. Use of AI by Peer Reviewers

Submitted manuscripts are confidential and constitute privileged scholarly communication. Reviewers must not upload manuscripts, supplementary files, research data, images, or unpublished information to public or external AI systems where confidentiality, privacy, data retention, and intellectual property protection cannot be guaranteed.

Reviewers may not use generative AI to produce a complete peer-review report or replace their independent academic judgment.

If the journal explicitly permits limited AI assistance, reviewers must:

  • obtain prior permission from the editor;

  • protect the confidentiality of the manuscript;

  • disclose the AI tool and how it was used;

  • verify the accuracy and appropriateness of the output; and

  • accept full responsibility for the final review report.

Reviewers remain personally responsible for ensuring that their evaluations are objective, accurate, constructive, and based on their own expertise.

11. Use of AI by Editors

Editors must protect the confidentiality and intellectual property of submitted manuscripts. Editors must not upload manuscripts or unpublished materials to external AI systems where confidentiality cannot be assured unless explicit permission has been obtained from the authors and appropriate safeguards are in place.

AI tools must not make final editorial decisions. Decisions to accept, revise, reject, correct, or retract a manuscript must remain under the responsibility of qualified human editors.

When AI-assisted systems are used for similarity screening, language checking, administrative support, or other editorial tasks, their outputs must be interpreted by human editors. Automated results must not serve as the sole basis for allegations of misconduct or editorial rejection.

Editors must disclose any material use of AI in the editorial or production process when such disclosure is relevant to authors or readers.

12. Confidentiality and Intellectual Property

Authors, reviewers, and editors must not upload confidential manuscripts, unpublished research findings, participant data, copyrighted material, or restricted institutional information to AI platforms without appropriate authorization.

Users of AI tools are responsible for understanding the platform’s:

  • privacy policy;

  • data-retention practices;

  • model-training practices;

  • security protections;

  • copyright provisions; and

  • terms of service.

The convenience of an AI tool does not override obligations concerning confidentiality, data protection, copyright, and research ethics.

13. Editorial Assessment of AI Use

IJES may use similarity-detection software and other editorial assessment tools to identify potential concerns involving plagiarism, fabricated references, inappropriate text generation, or undisclosed AI use.

Automated detection results will not ordinarily be treated as conclusive evidence. Editorial decisions will be based on human assessment, the manuscript’s content, supporting evidence, and explanations provided by the authors.

When clarification is required, authors may be asked to:

  • explain how an AI tool was used;

  • submit an AI Use Declaration;

  • provide original research data;

  • verify references and factual claims;

  • provide relevant prompts or outputs; or

  • revise or remove problematic content.

14. Non-Compliance and Corrective Action

Failure to comply with this policy may result in:

  • a request for clarification;

  • mandatory revision or disclosure;

  • rejection of the manuscript;

  • suspension of the editorial process;

  • withdrawal of acceptance;

  • publication of a correction or expression of concern;

  • retraction of a published article; or

  • notification of the authors’ institutions or relevant authorities in serious cases.

The action taken will depend on the nature, severity, and effect of the violation. Cases will be handled fairly and in accordance with the IJES Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement and relevant COPE guidance.

15. Policy Review

Artificial intelligence technologies and scholarly publishing standards continue to develop rapidly. IJES reserves the right to review and update this policy in response to technological, ethical, legal, and academic developments.

Authors, reviewers, and editors are responsible for consulting the most recent version of this policy before participating in the journal’s publication process.

This policy is guided by recommendations from the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) concerning transparency, authorship, accountability, confidentiality, and responsible use of artificial intelligence in scholarly publishing.