Bhavsar Daivat, Duffy Laura, Jo Hamin, Lokker Cynthia, Haynes R Brian, Iorio Alfonso, Marusic Ana, Ng Jeremy Y
Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact, Faculty of Health Sciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
Department of Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
Res Integr Peer Rev. 2025 Feb 28;10(1):1. doi: 10.1186/s41073-025-00158-y.
Artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots are novel computer programs that can generate text or content in a natural language format. Academic publishers are adapting to the transformative role of AI chatbots in producing or facilitating scientific research. This study aimed to examine the policies established by scientific, technical, and medical academic publishers for defining and regulating the authors' responsible use of AI chatbots.
This study performed a cross-sectional audit on the publicly available policies of 162 academic publishers, indexed as members of the International Association of the Scientific, Technical, and Medical Publishers (STM). Data extraction of publicly available policies on the webpages of all STM academic publishers was performed independently, in duplicate, with content analysis reviewed by a third contributor (September 2023-December 2023). Data was categorized into policy elements, such as 'proofreading' and 'image generation'. Counts and percentages of 'yes' (i.e., permitted), 'no', and 'no available information' (NAI) were established for each policy element.
A total of 56/162 (34.6%) STM academic publishers had a publicly available policy guiding the authors' use of AI chatbots. No policy allowed authorship for AI chatbots (or other AI tool). Most (49/56 or 87.5%) required specific disclosure of AI chatbot use. Four policies/publishers placed a complete ban on the use of AI chatbots by authors.
Only a third of STM academic publishers had publicly available policies as of December 2023. A re-examination of all STM members in 12-18 months may uncover evolving approaches toward AI chatbot use with more academic publishers having a policy.
人工智能（AI）聊天机器人是一种新型计算机程序，能够以自然语言格式生成文本或内容。学术出版商正在适应AI聊天机器人在开展或促进科学研究方面的变革性作用。本研究旨在考察科学、技术和医学学术出版商制定的关于界定和规范作者对AI聊天机器人的合理使用的政策。
本研究对162家学术出版商的公开政策进行了横断面审核，这些出版商被编入国际科技与医学出版商协会（STM）成员索引。对所有STM学术出版商网页上的公开政策进行数据提取，由两名独立人员重复操作，并由第三位人员进行内容分析（2023年9月至2023年12月）。数据被分类为政策要素，如“校对”和“图像生成”。为每个政策要素确定“是”（即允许）、“否”和“无可用信息”（NAI）的计数和百分比。
共有56/162（34.6%）的STM学术出版商有指导作者使用AI聊天机器人的公开政策。没有政策允许AI聊天机器人（或其他AI工具）成为作者。大多数（49/56或87.5%）要求具体披露AI聊天机器人的使用情况。四项政策/出版商完全禁止作者使用AI聊天机器人。
截至2023年12月，只有三分之一的STM学术出版商有公开政策。在12 - 18个月内对所有STM成员进行重新审查，可能会发现随着更多学术出版商制定政策，对AI聊天机器人使用的不断演变的方法。
