Spectrum of Operational Research (SOR) recognizes that Generative AI and AI-assisted technologies may support certain aspects of manuscript preparation and research. Their use must not compromise scientific integrity, originality, transparency, confidentiality, intellectual property, or human accountability for scholarly work.
Generative AI and AI-assisted technologies may be used during manuscript preparation for limited purposes such as improving language, grammar, readability, and clarity.
Such tools must not replace the authors' scientific reasoning or be relied upon to generate substantive scientific arguments, interpretations, analyses, results, conclusions, theoretical claims, methodological contributions, or other intellectual content for which authorship responsibility is required.
Human oversight is required at all times. AI-generated or AI-assisted output may contain inaccuracies, omissions, fabricated information, inappropriate or nonexistent references, biases, or misleading statements. Authors must carefully review and edit all AI-assisted output and remain fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, integrity, and final content of the submitted manuscript.
Authors must disclose the use of Generative AI or AI-assisted technologies where such tools materially contributed to manuscript preparation.
Routine tools used solely for basic spelling, grammar checking, formatting, reference management, or similar technical functions do not normally require disclosure, provided that they do not generate or materially alter substantive scholarly content.
Where disclosure is required, authors should identify the tool or service used and clearly explain its purpose. The disclosure should be included in a separate statement in the manuscript.
Generative AI systems and AI-assisted technologies must not be listed as authors or co-authors and must not be cited as authors.
Authorship entails responsibilities that can only be assumed by humans, including accountability for the accuracy and integrity of the work, approval of the final manuscript, disclosure and management of conflicts of interest, protection of confidential information, and compliance with applicable ethical, legal, and publication requirements.
The use of artificial intelligence, machine learning, Generative AI, or other computational AI methods as part of the research methodology is not prohibited by this policy.
Where such technologies constitute part of the scientific method, data analysis, modelling, simulation, optimization, experimentation, prediction, classification, image processing, or other research procedures, their use must be scientifically justified and described transparently in the manuscript.
Authors should provide sufficient methodological information to permit appropriate scientific evaluation and, where reasonably possible, reproducibility. Depending on the nature of the study, this may include the name of the tool, model, software, or service; version where available; provider or developer; relevant parameters or settings; input and output procedures; training or prompting procedures where scientifically relevant; and a clear description of how the technology contributed to the research.
Where AI-generated or AI-assisted outputs form part of the research data, analysis, or experimental results, authors must clearly distinguish those outputs from independently observed or experimentally generated data where this distinction is relevant to the interpretation of the study.
AI-generated images and visual content are not permitted as illustrative, decorative, explanatory, graphical, or publication artwork in manuscripts submitted to SOR.
Authors must not include AI-generated or AI-synthesized illustrations, figures, graphical abstracts, artwork, photographs, decorative visual elements, or other visual content unless the generation of such material constitutes an integral and explicitly described part of the scientific methodology itself.
Generative AI and AI-assisted tools must not be used to add, remove, replace, fabricate, enhance, obscure, or otherwise manipulate elements within genuine research images or other visual research records in a manner that could misrepresent the underlying data.
Conventional adjustments to genuine research images, such as reasonable changes to brightness, contrast, or color balance, may be permitted where they are applied appropriately and do not obscure, eliminate, fabricate, or materially misrepresent information contained in the original data.
Where AI-based image processing, computer vision, image reconstruction, synthetic-data generation, surrogate-data generation, or related techniques constitute an integral part of the research methodology, their scientific use may be permitted.
Such methodological use must be clearly identified and described in sufficient detail to allow appropriate scientific evaluation and, where reasonably possible, reproducibility.
This methodological exception does not permit the use of AI-generated decorative, illustrative, promotional, cover, or graphical-abstract content unless explicitly permitted by a separate journal or Publisher policy.
The journal may request original, unedited source images, underlying data, processing records, code, prompts, model information, or other relevant documentation where questions arise concerning the integrity, provenance, or reproducibility of visual or AI-assisted research material.
Editors and peer reviewers must treat manuscripts and all associated materials as confidential. Manuscripts, manuscript excerpts, figures, tables, supplementary files, review materials, editorial correspondence, or other confidential information obtained through the editorial process must not be uploaded to public or external Generative AI systems or AI-assisted tools where doing so could compromise confidentiality, intellectual property, privacy, or the rights of the authors.
Editors must not use Generative AI or AI-assisted tools to replace their scholarly evaluation of confidential manuscripts or to generate editorial decisions. Editorial judgments and decisions must remain under human responsibility and must be based on appropriate scholarly assessment and the journal's established editorial procedures.
Peer reviewers must not use Generative AI or AI-assisted tools to analyze, summarize, evaluate, or review submitted manuscripts, nor to generate substantive peer-review assessments or recommendations.
Reviewers remain personally responsible for the scholarly reasoning, accuracy, integrity, professionalism, and confidentiality of their review reports.
Further reviewer-specific requirements are provided in the journal's Peer Reviewer Conduct and Intellectual Property policy.
Authors must not use AI tools to fabricate, falsify, manipulate, or misrepresent data, references, analyses, images, results, methodological information, or other research content.
AI-assisted content remains subject to the same standards of accuracy, originality, transparency, attribution, and research integrity as all other manuscript content.
Relevant requirements concerning fabrication, falsification, misrepresentation, duplicate publication, citation manipulation, and related integrity matters are provided in the journal's Publication Integrity policy.
Where there is a credible concern that Generative AI or AI-assisted technologies have been used in a manner that violates this policy or compromises the integrity, confidentiality, originality, or reliability of a manuscript or published article, the journal may request clarification, source material, supporting documentation, or other relevant information.
Potential breaches of this policy that raise concerns regarding research or publication misconduct will be assessed in accordance with the journal's Procedures for Dealing with Allegations of Unethical Behaviour .
Where an established concern affects an already published article, any formal action affecting the scholarly record will be governed by the journal's Retraction and Correction Policies .
Declaration of Generative AI and AI-Assisted Technologies in the Manuscript Preparation Process
During the preparation of this manuscript, the authors used [NAME AND VERSION OF TOOL, WHERE APPLICABLE] for [PURPOSE, e.g., improving language and readability]. The tool was not used to generate scientific content, analyses, results, interpretations, or conclusions. The authors reviewed and edited all AI-assisted output and take full responsibility for the accuracy, integrity, originality, and final content of the manuscript. No Generative AI tools were used to create, generate, or improperly modify images, figures, graphical abstracts, artwork, or other visual content included in the manuscript.
