AI Transparency Statement

SERA open press uses artificial intelligence tools as part of its editorial operations. We believe in full transparency about how AI is used in our publishing processes. This page details exactly what AI does, what it does not do, and the safeguards we have in place to protect the integrity of scholarly publishing.

Our guiding principle: AI serves as an administrative and editorial accelerant — it handles logistics, not judgment. All scientific evaluation and editorial decisions are made by qualified human editors and reviewers.

How AI Is Used in the Editorial Process

What AI Does

AI-assisted tools are used in the following administrative and quality-assurance capacities during the editorial workflow:

Function	Description	Human Oversight
Plagiarism and similarity screening	Manuscripts are checked against published literature for textual overlap	Editor reviews flagged sections and makes the determination
Scope and fit classification	AI suggests whether a submission falls within the journal's scope based on abstract, keywords, and references	Editor makes the final scope decision
Formatting and structural checks	Automated verification of manuscript structure, reference formatting, and completeness of required elements	Flags are advisory; editor decides what to act on
Reviewer matching	AI suggests potential reviewers based on the manuscript's subject matter and the reviewer database	Editor evaluates suggestions and selects reviewers
Reporting checklist flags	AI identifies potentially missing elements (e.g., ethics approval statement, data availability statement, conflict of interest declaration)	Editor reviews flags as part of desk assessment
Citation sanity checks	AI flags unusual citation patterns, potential reference errors, or self-citation anomalies	Editor evaluates flags in context
Automated follow-ups	System-generated reminders to reviewers, authors, and editors for pending actions and deadlines	Standard workflow automation

What AI Does NOT Do

AI is explicitly prohibited from performing the following functions:

Making accept or reject decisions — All editorial decisions are made by human editors
Writing peer review reports — All substantive evaluation is conducted by human reviewers
Evaluating scientific merit — AI does not assess the quality, validity, or significance of research findings
Generating editorial recommendations — AI does not produce accept/reject recommendations sent to editors
Communicating decisions to authors — All decision communications are composed or approved by human editors
Replacing or supplementing human peer review — AI outputs are internal flags, not evaluative assessments

AI Use by Authors

Authors must disclose the use of AI tools in the preparation of their manuscripts. This disclosure should be included in the manuscript's Methods section, Acknowledgments, or a dedicated AI Disclosure statement.

Disclosure Requirements

Authors must report:

Which AI tools were used (e.g., specific language models, data analysis tools, image generation tools)
How they were used (e.g., language editing, code generation, literature search, data analysis)
What content was generated or substantially modified by AI tools

Permitted and Restricted Uses

Use Category	Examples	Policy
Assistive use	Grammar and language editing, translation, citation formatting, code debugging	Permitted with disclosure
Generative use	Drafting text, generating figures, creating data visualizations, writing code	Permitted with full disclosure of what was generated
Prohibited use	Fabricating data, generating fake references, producing misleading results	Strictly prohibited — constitutes research misconduct

Key Rules

AI cannot be listed as an author. AI tools do not meet authorship criteria (ICMJE) because they cannot take responsibility for the work or be held accountable.
Authors bear full responsibility for all content in their manuscript, including any content generated or assisted by AI.
Failure to disclose AI use may be treated as a violation of publication ethics and could result in manuscript rejection or retraction.

AI Disclosure Template

Authors may use the following template in their manuscripts:

AI Disclosure: [Tool name and version] was used for [specific purpose, e.g., "language editing and proofreading of the manuscript"]. The authors reviewed and take full responsibility for all content. / No AI tools were used in the preparation of this manuscript.

AI Use by Reviewers (Reviewer AI Use Policy)

Peer reviewers handle confidential, unpublished manuscripts. The use of external AI tools by reviewers raises serious concerns about confidentiality, data protection, and the integrity of the review process.

Rules for Reviewers

Do NOT upload manuscript text, figures, or data to external AI tools (e.g., consumer-facing chatbots, third-party AI services). This would breach manuscript confidentiality and may violate GDPR.
Do NOT use AI to generate your review report. The value of peer review lies in expert human judgment. AI-generated reviews do not meet this standard.
You may use AI for limited personal assistance, such as:
- Looking up terminology or concepts (without sharing manuscript content)
- Checking your own grammar when writing the review
- Using reference management tools
If you use any AI assistance, you must disclose this in the confidential comments to the editor when submitting your review.
If in doubt, ask the editor before using any AI tool in connection with a manuscript under review.

Violation of this policy may result in removal from the reviewer database and notification to the reviewer's institution if warranted.

AI Use by Editors

Editors may use the AI-assisted tools provided by SERA open press as part of the editorial workflow (as described above). Editors must not:

Use external AI tools to evaluate manuscripts or generate editorial decisions
Upload manuscript content to third-party AI services
Delegate editorial judgment to AI systems

Data Handling and Privacy

When AI tools process manuscript data as part of the SERA open press editorial workflow:

Enterprise-grade services with zero data retention policies are used — manuscript content is not stored or retained by AI service providers after processing
Manuscript content is never used to train AI models — we contractually prohibit this with all service providers
Self-hosted models are used where feasible to minimize external data exposure
All AI data processing complies with GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) and applicable data protection laws
No personal author data (names, affiliations, contact information) is processed by AI tools in ways that could compromise double-blind review

For full details on data handling, see our Privacy Statement.

Commitment to Transparency and Evolution

AI in scholarly publishing is a rapidly evolving area. SERA open press commits to:

Regularly updating this page as our AI practices develop or change
Publishing the specific tools and models used once our AI infrastructure is fully operational
Monitoring COPE, DOAJ, and community guidance on AI in publishing and adapting our policies accordingly
Engaging with the scholarly community on best practices for responsible AI use in publishing

This page was last updated: 28.02.2026

Questions and Concerns

For questions about AI use at SERA open press, contact: ai@serapress.com For ethics concerns related to AI, contact: ethics@serapress.com