Central European Journal of Sport Sciences and Medicine

These rules, drafted on the basis of the position expressed by the Association of University Presses on using generative artificial intelligence (GAI) in scholarly papers, lay down the rules for responsible use of AI tools in creating and publishing texts, graphic content, illustrations and charts. They aim to ensure scholarly reliability, transparency and respect for copyright. 

1. Only a human being may be an author of a scholarly paper. AI tools (including chatbots such as ChatGTP) cannot be deemed authors/co-authors or quoted as authors since they do not meet fundamental criteria resulting from the definition of authorship; in particular, they may not be held responsible for reliability, integrity or originality of a paper. These tools do not have the capacity to perform acts in law, they cannot manage copyright, nor are they able to recognize the occurrence or lack of a conflict of interests.  AI tools may support the author in editing or translating the manuscript, in data analysis or preparation of graphical content, provided that they do not replace independent and creative scientific contribution.

2. Authors who use AI tools when writing their texts, gathering and analysing data or creating graphical elements are obliged to disclose, fairly and fully transparently, which AI tool they have used, how and to what extent, and how it has affected a given manuscript.

3. AI may be used to do language editing and to improve readability of a manuscript, but it cannot replace key creative processes, such as formulating scientific conclusions, elaborating observations or generating research resu

4. Authors bear full responsibility for the content of a submitted manuscript and for all fragments that have been created using IT tools and are thus responsible for any possible breaches of publishing ethics. Tools such as ChatGTP have limitations that must be taken account of. The following are important in particular:
- hallucination, that is generating false information that sounds reliable and correct at the linguistics level,
- plagiarism, direct citations or appropriation of an idea without crediting the author,
- generating false bibliographical descriptions or even entire references.

5. Each use of IT tools should be disclosed in the content of the work (e.g. in a footnote, in the abstract, in the “Methods” or “Acknowledgments” sections – ultimately selected by the journal’s editorial office/scientific council of the University of Szczecin Press) by providing the following:
- the name of the tool used together with its version/model,
- the extent to which it was used (e.g. language editing, generating draft illustrations, data analysis) along with the commands (prompts) used or a brief description of how it was used (e.g. types of queries/commands).

6. Additionally, each author must submit to the WNUS/editors of a given journal a relevant declaration on the use of AI-assisted tools in creating their work, including chatbots, large language models (LLM) or image generators, along with a detailed description of why, how and to what extent they have been used. A declaration template constitutes a schedule hereto (file to download available at the WNUS website).

7. Creation of images and videos by generative AI has caused infringements of copyright and principles of reliability in research. In observing the copyright in force and best practices of the publishing ethics, WNUS does not allow the use of those materials in publications, unless they are the substance of research in a given paper. Such cases should each time be justified upon manuscript submission and are evaluated individually by editors and reviewers. WNUS allows the use of AI tools to prepare supporting illustrations or data visualizations, provided that:
- sources of this data are reliable and documented,
- the graphics do not infringe on copyright or licenses,
- materials bear the label “Generated with the use of AI” (if applicable),
- they meet data transparency principles (FAIR Data Principles), if this is scientific data.

8. All materials sent to WNUS are subject to verification in an anti-plagiarism system that also detects the use of AI tools.

9. Rules for reviewers and editors on using artificial intelligence (AI) tools:
- Reviewers and editors bear full responsibility for reliability, thoroughness and integrity of the review and editing process. They must ensure that no part of a work has been processed by AI without relevant consent from the author or without disclosing this fact.
- IA use transparency, confidentiality protection and responsibility for the content of the work are key principles that must be observed at each stage of the publishing process.
- Manuscript confidentiality is a fundamental issue at each stage of the publishing process. All manuscripts and correspondence relating to publication are treated as confidential documents. Feeding them into AI tools without the author’s consent is forbidden.
- Reviewers, editors and the editing teams cannot use AI tools to assess submissions or to draft reviews. Assessment of a scholarly paper requires critical thinking and a thorough analysis that go beyond the capabilities of artificial intelligence and may be done only by a human.

The University of Szczecin Press operates in accordance with recommendations of the Association of University Presses as its member: Stanowisko i rekomendacje Stowarzyszenia Wydawców Szkół Wyższych w kwestii stosowania narzędzi generatywnej sztucznej inteligencji (GAI) w pisaniu prac naukowych

Author’s/Authors’ Declaration (template) Available for Download