July 19, 2023
About the Use of AI and Editorial Decisions
This policy was triggered by the emergence of generative AI and AI-assisted technologies* and aims to provide greater transparency and guidance to authors, editors, and reviewers. Reativar Ambiental will assist and closely monitor developments in this area and adjust or refine the policy as appropriate. The guidance is specifically for editors.
A submitted manuscript should be treated as a confidential document. Editors must not upload a submitted manuscript or any part of it into a generative AI tool, as this could violate the confidentiality and intellectual property rights of the authors and, where the article contains personally identifiable information, could violate data privacy rights.
This confidentiality requirement extends to all communications about the manuscript, including any notifications or decision letters, as they may contain confidential information about the manuscript and/or the authors. For this reason, editors should not submit their letters to an AI tool, even if it is solely to improve the language and readability.
Peer review is at the heart of the scientific ecosystem, and the Brazilian Journal of Environment adheres to the highest standards of integrity in this process. Managing the editorial assessment of a scientific manuscript involves responsibilities that can only be assigned to humans. Generative AI or AI-assisted technologies should not be used by editors to assist in the evaluation or decision-making process of a manuscript, as the critical thinking and original assessment required for this work are beyond the scope of this technology, and there is a risk that the technology could produce incorrect, incomplete, or biased conclusions about the manuscript. The editor is responsible and accountable for the editorial process, the final decision, and its communication to the authors.
The RVBMA's AI author policy states that authors are permitted to use generative AI and AI-assisted technologies during the writing process before submission, but only to improve the language and readability of their article, with appropriate disclosure as outlined in our Author Guide. Editors may find such disclosure at the end of the article in a separate section before the reference list. If an editor suspects that an author or reviewer has violated our AI policies, they should inform the editor.
A violation occurs when the author uses AI to write sentences for them, giving the impression that the writing was created by a human rather than a machine.
*Generative AI is a type of artificial intelligence technology that can produce various types of content, including text, images, audio, and synthetic data. Examples include ChatGPT, NovelAI, Jasper AI, Rytr AI, DALL-E, etc.