The Annals of King Edward Medical University is committed to promoting the journal and its published content in an ethical, accurate, and transparent manner. All marketing and promotional activities of the journal, including website content, social media communication, calls for papers, and dissemination of published material, shall be professional, evidence-based, and must not misrepresent the journal’s scope, editorial processes, indexing status, or publication metrics.
Marketing and promotional activities shall remain independent of editorial decision-making. Solicitation of manuscripts, advertisements, sponsorship, or promotional content shall not influence peer review, editorial assessment, or decisions regarding acceptance or rejection of manuscripts.

1. Purpose:

Annals of King Edward Medical University (Annals of KEMU) recognizes the growing use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)–assisted technologies in biomedical research and scholarly publishing. The Journal supports the responsible, transparent, and ethical use of these technologies while maintaining the principles of scientific integrity, accountability, originality, confidentiality, and human oversight. Generative AI and AI-assisted tools must never be used as a substitute for human critical thinking, expertise, and evaluation, and AI tools should always be applied with human oversight and control.

Annals of King Edward Medical University Artificial Intelligence (Ai) And Generative Ai Tools policy is informed by:

• ICMJE Recommendations
• WAME Guidance on Chatbots and AI in Scholarly Publications
• COPE Position Statement on Authorship and AI

The journal expects that any use of AI should comply with the principles of research integrity, confidentiality, accountability, and good publication practice. AI tools may assist authors in limited tasks, but full responsibility for the content of a manuscript always remains with the authors.

2. Scope:

This policy applies to all individuals involved in the publication process of Annals of KEMU, including:

• Authors
• Corresponding Authors
• Peer Reviewers
• Editors
• Editorial Board Members
• Editorial Office Staff

It applies to all AI-assisted technologies, including but not limited to Large Language Models (LLMs), generative AI systems, chatbots, image generators, statistical AI software, and machine-learning tools.

3. AI Cannot Be an Author:

Artificial Intelligence systems, including ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Copilot, or any other AI-assisted technology, cannot be listed as an author or co-author of a manuscript.

AI systems do not satisfy the authorship criteria established by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) because they cannot:

• make substantial intellectual contributions as accountable researchers;
• approve the final version of a manuscript;
• take public responsibility for the integrity or accuracy of the work;
• disclose conflicts of interest;
• manage copyright or licensing agreements; or
• accept legal or ethical accountability for published research.

Accordingly, only human contributors fulfilling the ICMJE authorship criteria may be designated as authors.

4. Acceptable Uses of AI by Authors:

Annals of KEMU recognizes that AI-assisted technologies may be used responsibly during research and manuscript preparation.

Examples of acceptable use include:

• language editing and grammar correction;
• improvement of readability;
• formatting assistance;
• literature organization or summarization;
• coding assistance;
• statistical programming support;
• image enhancement that does not alter scientific meaning;
• data organization; and
• administrative assistance during manuscript preparation.

The use of AI must never replace scientific judgment, critical thinking, or human interpretation.

5. Mandatory Disclosure:

Authors must disclose the use of AI-assisted technologies whenever such tools contribute to any aspect of the submitted work. The disclosure should include:

• the name of the AI tool;
• the version (where applicable);
• the purpose for which it was used; and
• the extent of its contribution.

Where AI is used for writing or language editing, disclosure should be made in the Acknowledgements section.

Where AI contributes to data collection, statistical analysis, image generation, figure preparation, or any research methodology, its use must be described in the Materials and Methods section.

Failure to disclose the use of AI may constitute publication misconduct.

6. Author Responsibility:

The use of AI does not reduce the responsibilities of authors. All listed authors remain fully responsible for:

• the originality of the work;
• scientific accuracy;
• data integrity;
• interpretation of findings;
• ethical compliance;
• appropriate citation of sources;
• absence of plagiarism;
• copyright compliance; and
• the final content submitted for publication.

Authors must critically review, verify, and edit all AI-generated material before submission.

7. Prohibited Uses of AI:

The following uses of AI are prohibited:

• listing AI as an author or co-author;
• generating fabricated data;
• generating fictitious references or citations;
• creating or altering research findings;
• manipulation of scientific images without disclosure;
• falsification or fabrication of data;
• undisclosed AI-generated text presented as original scholarly writing;
• generation of fraudulent peer-review reports;
• use of AI to conceal plagiarism or research misconduct.

Any such practices may result in rejection, retraction, notification of the authors' institution, or other actions in accordance with Journal policy or relevant international guidelines.

8. AI and Research Data:

Authors may use AI-assisted technologies for data management or statistical support provided that:

• appropriate human oversight is maintained;
• analytical methods are scientifically valid;
• AI-generated outputs are independently verified;
• reproducibility is ensured; and
• sufficient methodological detail is provided to permit replication.

Authors remain solely responsible for the interpretation of all research findings.

9. AI-Generated Images and Figures:

Images, illustrations, graphical abstracts, or figures created or substantially modified using AI-assisted technologies must be clearly disclosed.

AI-generated images must not misrepresent research findings, alter scientific observations, or manipulate clinical or pathological images in a manner that could mislead readers.

The Editorial Board may request original image files whenever necessary.

10. AI and Peer Review:

Peer reviewers must maintain complete confidentiality of all submitted manuscripts.

Reviewers must not upload manuscripts, figures, supplementary files, or confidential reviewer reports into publicly accessible AI platforms unless explicit permission has been granted by the Editor-in-Chief and adequate safeguards exist to protect confidentiality.

If reviewers use AI solely for language improvement of their review comments, they remain entirely responsible for the accuracy, confidentiality, and integrity of those comments.

11. AI Use by Editors:

Editors and Editorial Office staff may use AI-assisted technologies only for limited administrative purposes, such as language editing, plagiarism screening support, or workflow management.

Editors must not upload confidential manuscript content to AI platforms that retain, learn from, or reuse submitted material without appropriate safeguards.

Editorial decisions shall always be made exclusively by human editors based on scientific merit, ethical standards, originality, and relevance to the Journal.

12. Confidentiality:

The confidentiality of manuscripts submitted to Annals of King Edward Medical university must be preserved at all stages of the editorial process.

Neither authors, reviewers, editors, nor editorial staff shall disclose confidential manuscript content through AI systems that may store, process, or redistribute submitted information without appropriate authorization.

13. Editorial Assessment:

The Editorial Board reserves the right to request additional information regarding the use of AI-assisted technologies.

Where the disclosure of AI use is incomplete, inaccurate, or inconsistent with this policy, the Journal may request clarification, revision, or additional documentation before further consideration of the manuscript.

14. Misuse of AI:

Failure to comply with this policy may constitute publication misconduct.

Depending upon the nature and severity of the violation, Annals of King Edward Medical University may:

• reject the manuscript;
• suspend peer review pending clarification;
• publish corrections;
• retract published articles;
• notify authors' institutions or funding agencies where appropriate; or
• take any other action consistent with COPE guidance.

15. Policy Review:

Given the rapid evolution of AI technologies, Annals of KEMU reserves the right to revise this policy periodically in accordance with updates issued by ICMJE, COPE, WAME, and other internationally recognized organizations.