Spectrum of Mechanical Engineering and Operational Research (SMEOR) recognizes that Generative AI and AI-assisted technologies may support certain aspects of manuscript preparation and research. Their use must, however, be transparent, responsible, and consistent with the principles of research integrity, confidentiality, authorship, intellectual property, and accountability.
Generative AI and AI-assisted technologies may be used during manuscript preparation to assist with language, grammar, clarity, readability, organization, or other appropriate aspects of preparing scholarly text. Such tools must not replace the authors' scientific reasoning, critical evaluation, interpretation of results, development of conclusions, or responsibility for the scholarly content of the manuscript.
Authors must exercise appropriate human oversight when using AI-assisted tools. AI-generated output may contain inaccurate, incomplete, biased, misleading, or fabricated information. Authors must therefore carefully review, verify, and edit any AI-assisted output before including it in a manuscript.
Authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, integrity, and reliability of all content submitted to SMEOR, regardless of whether AI-assisted technologies were used during manuscript preparation.
Authors must independently verify factual statements, mathematical expressions, equations, calculations, citations, references, DOIs, data, and other information suggested or processed by AI-assisted tools. AI-generated references or citations must not be included without verification against the original scholarly source.
Generative AI must not be used to fabricate, falsify, or misrepresent research data, results, analyses, references, or other scientific information. AI-generated or synthetic data must not be presented as genuine experimental, observational, or empirical data. Where synthetic data are legitimately generated as part of the research methodology, their nature, generation procedure, and role in the study must be clearly disclosed.
Authors must disclose substantive use of Generative AI or AI-assisted technologies in the preparation of a manuscript. The disclosure should identify the tool or service used, its version where available, and the purpose for which it was used.
The disclosure should be included in a separate statement in the manuscript. Authors remain fully responsible for all AI-assisted content and for ensuring that the use of such technologies complies with applicable confidentiality, intellectual property, copyright, privacy, and data-protection requirements.
Where AI, machine learning, or related computational technologies form part of the research methodology itself, their use should additionally be described in the Methods or other appropriate section of the manuscript with sufficient information to permit scholarly evaluation and, where reasonably possible, reproducibility.
Generative AI systems, large language models, chatbots, and other AI-assisted technologies must not be listed as authors or co-authors and must not be credited 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 submitted and published versions, management of conflicts of interest, compliance with research and publication ethics, and responsibility for responding to questions concerning the work.
The use of Generative AI or AI-assisted tools to create, generate, redraw, reconstruct, enhance, alter, or manipulate images, figures, illustrations, diagrams, graphical abstracts, artwork, or other visual material intended for publication in SMEOR is prohibited, except where the use of AI constitutes part of the research methodology itself as described below.
This prohibition applies to visual material created or modified primarily for presentation or publication purposes. Authors must not use Generative AI to add, remove, replace, obscure, fabricate, or modify visual elements in a manner that creates or changes scientific evidence or misrepresents the underlying data.
Conventional technical adjustments to original images, such as limited changes to brightness, contrast, or color balance, may be permitted where they are applied appropriately and do not selectively alter, obscure, remove, or misrepresent information contained in the original data. The journal may request original, unedited source files where the integrity of an image or figure requires verification.
Generative AI must not be used to create graphical abstracts, decorative scientific illustrations, conceptual figures, or other visual representations intended solely for publication or presentation in SMEOR.
The restrictions on AI-generated publication artwork do not prevent the legitimate use of AI, machine learning, or other computational methods as part of the scientific methodology itself. Examples may include computer vision, generative design, topology optimization, digital twins, synthetic data generation, AI-based engineering analysis, predictive modelling, optimization, decision-support systems, or other scientifically justified applications.
Where AI is an integral part of the research methodology, authors must describe its use with sufficient detail to permit appropriate scientific evaluation and, where reasonably possible, reproducibility. The Methods section should identify the relevant tool, model, software, or system; its version where applicable; the provider or developer where relevant; the principal settings, parameters, prompts, training procedures, or other information necessary to understand the analysis; and how the generated output was evaluated or validated.
Any images, data, designs, simulations, or other outputs generated through AI as part of the research methodology must be clearly identified as such. They must not be presented in a manner that could lead readers to believe that they represent conventional experimental, observational, photographic, or otherwise independently acquired evidence when they do not.
Editors must protect the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts and all associated editorial materials. Editors must not upload unpublished manuscripts, figures, supplementary files, reviewer reports, author information, or other confidential submission materials into publicly available or external Generative AI systems where doing so could compromise confidentiality, privacy, intellectual property, or data security.
Editors must not use Generative AI to make, replace, or substantially determine editorial judgments or decisions concerning manuscripts. Responsibility for editorial assessment and decision-making remains with the human editor.
Reviewers must treat manuscripts and all associated materials as confidential. They must not upload manuscripts, figures, tables, supplementary materials, unpublished data, or other confidential information obtained through the peer-review process into publicly available or external Generative AI systems where doing so could compromise confidentiality, privacy, intellectual property, or data security.
Reviewers must not rely on Generative AI to replace their own analysis, evaluation, or substantive scientific judgment concerning a manuscript. Peer-review reports must reflect the reviewer's own expert assessment and conclusions.
AI-assisted tools may be used solely to improve the language, grammar, or readability of a reviewer's own report, provided that no manuscript content, confidential information, unpublished data, or identifiable submission material is entered into an external AI system in violation of the journal's confidentiality requirements. Reviewers remain fully responsible for the accuracy, appropriateness, and integrity of their reports.
Declaration of Generative AI and AI-Assisted Technologies in the Manuscript Preparation Process
During the preparation of this work, the authors used [NAME AND VERSION OF TOOL/SERVICE] for [PURPOSE]. The authors reviewed, edited, and verified the output as appropriate and take full responsibility for the accuracy, originality, and integrity of the final manuscript. The AI-assisted technology was not credited as an author and was not used to replace the authors' scientific judgment or responsibility for the work.
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