GENERATIVE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (GenAI) POLICY

The Law and Economics (LE) journal, owned and managed by the Institute for Law and Economics Studies, recognizes that Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) and AI-assisted technologies can support scholarly research and academic publishing. The journal permits responsible use of these technologies, provided that their use is transparent, human-supervised, and consistent with academic integrity, research ethics, confidentiality, and applicable intellectual property rights.

This policy is informed by Elsevier's Generative AI Policies for Journals and Scopus's recommendations concerning transparency in the use of GenAI in scholarly publishing. It applies to authors, reviewers, editors, and other parties involved in the journal's publication process.

1. General Principles

The use of GenAI must comply with the following principles:

  1. Human responsibility: AI tools must not replace human scholarly judgment, critical thinking, independent evaluation, or intellectual contribution.

  2. Transparency: The use of GenAI in manuscript preparation and other relevant publication activities must be disclosed when required by this policy.

  3. Accuracy and verification: All AI-generated content must be critically reviewed and verified by the responsible human user.

  4. Research integrity: AI must not be used to fabricate or falsify data, manipulate findings, generate misleading evidence, or misrepresent sources.

  5. Confidentiality and privacy: Unpublished manuscripts, personal information, confidential research data, and proprietary materials must be protected.

  6. Accountability: The human author, reviewer, or editor remains responsible for their respective work and decisions, regardless of whether AI tools were used.

2. Policy for Authors

2.1 Permitted Use of GenAI

Authors may use GenAI and AI-assisted technologies in a limited and responsible manner to support manuscript preparation, including:

  • Improving language, readability, grammar, and clarity beyond basic spelling and punctuation checks.

  • Organizing manuscript sections and improving the structure of author-developed content.

  • Supporting literature exploration, research idea development, and preliminary identification of research gaps.

  • Assisting with summarization and synthesis of literature, provided that the original sources are independently examined and accurately cited.

  • Supporting translation, provided that the translated content is checked for accuracy and completeness.

  • Developing explanatory diagrams, conceptual illustrations, and workflow visualizations, subject to the requirements for disclosure, accuracy, and intellectual property compliance.

AI-generated content must be reviewed, edited, and validated by the authors. The final manuscript must reflect genuine scholarly contribution, analysis, interpretation, and judgment by the authors.

2.2 Prohibited Use of GenAI

Authors must not use GenAI to:

  • Fabricate, falsify, or manipulate research data, experimental results, statistical findings, or evidence.

  • Generate fictitious references, citations, quotations, legal authorities, case law, regulations, or other sources.

  • Present AI-generated text, analysis, or conclusions as independently verified research without appropriate human evaluation.

  • Misrepresent the originality, methodology, results, or contribution of the submitted work.

  • Generate or alter research images in ways that misrepresent primary observations or experimental evidence.

  • Plagiarize existing works or infringe copyright, licensing terms, privacy rights, or other intellectual property rights.

  • Circumvent plagiarism screening, peer review, research integrity checks, or other journal publication requirements.

Any suspected misuse may result in editorial investigation and appropriate action under the journal's publication ethics policies.

3. Disclosure of GenAI Use by Authors

Authors must include a separate declaration in the manuscript when GenAI or AI-assisted technologies have been used for substantive manuscript preparation, including generating or substantially revising text, translating manuscript content, or creating explanatory images.

The declaration must be placed at the end of the manuscript, immediately before the References section, under the heading:

Declaration of Generative AI and AI-Assisted Technologies in the Manuscript Preparation Process

The statement must identify the tool or service used, explain its purpose, and confirm that the authors reviewed the output and accept full responsibility for the published content.

Authors may use the following format:

“During the preparation of this work, the author(s) used [NAME OF TOOL/SERVICE] for [PURPOSE OF USE]. After using this tool/service, the author(s) reviewed and edited the content as necessary and take full responsibility for the content of the published article.”

Basic spelling, grammar, punctuation checks, and standard reference-manager functions that do not use generative AI do not require disclosure. Where a tool performs substantive rewriting, generates content, or uses generative AI functionality to select, compile, or edit references, disclosure is required.

If GenAI is used as part of the research design, methodology, data analysis, coding, modeling, or interpretation of research data, the use must also be described in the Methods section with sufficient detail to support transparency and reproducibility. This should include the tool or model, version where available, developer or provider where applicable, purpose of use, and relevant procedures.

The journal may request additional information about the use of AI when necessary to assess the manuscript's integrity.

4. Authorship and Accountability

GenAI tools, chatbots, and other AI systems cannot be listed as authors or co-authors of a manuscript.

Authorship requires human intellectual contribution, the ability to approve the final manuscript, and accountability for the accuracy and integrity of the work. AI systems cannot independently assume these responsibilities.

All listed authors remain responsible for:

  • Verifying the accuracy and originality of the manuscript.

  • Checking the validity and relevance of references and citations.

  • Ensuring that AI-assisted content does not infringe third-party rights.

  • Confirming that the final manuscript accurately represents the research performed.

  • Responding to questions or concerns regarding the integrity of the published work.

5. GenAI in Figures, Images, and Visual Materials

AI-assisted tools may be used to create explanatory diagrams, conceptual illustrations, and workflow figures when the output is accurate, relevant, and appropriately disclosed.

Where GenAI is used to create or substantially modify an explanatory image, the authors must identify the tool and explain its use in the relevant figure caption. The use must also be included in the general GenAI declaration.

AI must not be used to fabricate, invent, or deceptively alter primary research images or visual evidence. Data visualizations generated with AI assistance must be derived faithfully from the underlying data and reproducible analytical procedures.

Authors must ensure that all images and visual materials comply with copyright, licensing, privacy, and other applicable rights. The journal may request original images, source data, or supporting documentation for editorial verification.

6. Policy for Reviewers

Peer reviewers must preserve the confidentiality of manuscripts and maintain independent scholarly judgment throughout the peer-review process.

Reviewers must not upload submitted manuscripts, excerpts, unpublished research data, reviewer reports containing confidential material, or other identifiable manuscript information to external GenAI tools.

AI tools must not replace the reviewer's independent assessment of the manuscript's originality, methodology, validity, contribution, or ethical compliance.

Reviewers may use appropriate AI assistance for limited administrative or language-related tasks only when confidentiality is maintained and the use is consistent with this policy. Any substantive AI assistance used to prepare a review report must be disclosed to the journal editor, including the tool used and its purpose.

Reviewers remain fully responsible for the accuracy, fairness, confidentiality, and scholarly judgment expressed in their reports.

7. Policy for Editors

Editors are responsible for maintaining editorial independence, publication integrity, and the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts.

Editors must not upload submitted manuscripts or any part of their confidential content to external GenAI tools. Any AI-assisted editorial activity must preserve manuscript confidentiality and comply with applicable data protection and intellectual property requirements.

Where appropriate and permitted, editors may use AI tools for limited supportive tasks, such as improving the language of editorial correspondence or conducting background literature exploration, provided that confidential manuscript content is not disclosed.

AI tools must not independently determine manuscript acceptance, rejection, retraction, reviewer suitability, or other consequential editorial outcomes without appropriate human evaluation.

The Editor-in-Chief and authorized editorial team retain full responsibility for editorial decisions, communications with authors, and the application of the journal's publication policies.

8. Confidentiality, Privacy, and Intellectual Property

Before using a GenAI tool, authors, reviewers, and editors must assess its terms of service, data retention practices, privacy safeguards, model-training arrangements, and applicable licensing conditions.

Unpublished manuscripts, confidential research data, personal information, and proprietary materials must not be submitted to tools that may retain, reuse, disclose, or use such information for model training without appropriate authorization and safeguards.

Users must ensure that their use of AI does not compromise confidentiality, violate data protection requirements, or transfer rights over submitted materials in a manner inconsistent with publication.

9. Editorial Assessment and Enforcement

The journal reserves the right to assess whether the use of GenAI complies with this policy. Such assessment may include examining disclosure statements, verifying references, reviewing supporting documentation, and requesting clarification from the authors.

Failure to disclose relevant AI use, fabricated references, manipulated research evidence, or other misuse may lead to one or more of the following actions, depending on the seriousness of the case:

  • Requesting clarification or additional documentation.

  • Requiring revision or correction of the manuscript.

  • Rejecting the submission.

  • Suspending editorial consideration while an investigation is conducted.

  • Publishing a correction, expression of concern, or retraction when warranted for an already published article.

  • Referring serious concerns to the relevant institution or responsible authority, where appropriate.

All cases will be assessed fairly and on the basis of available evidence, in accordance with the journal's publication ethics and correction and retraction policies.

10. Policy Updates

GenAI technologies, scholarly publishing practices, and relevant ethical standards continue to evolve. The Law and Economics (LE) journal may periodically review and update this policy to maintain alignment with responsible research practices and recognized scholarly publishing guidance.

Authors, reviewers, and editors are expected to comply with the version of the policy applicable to their manuscript or publication activity.

Policy authority: Institute for Law and Economics Studies
Journal: Law and Economics (LE)