AI Policy

AI Policy and Ethical Guidelines

Mudra: Jurnal Seni Budaya adopts the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) position on authorship and AI tools, aligning practices with international standards for transparency, responsibility, and integrity in scholarly publishing.

Scope and Guiding Principles

• Applicability: Applies to all submissions, accepted manuscripts, and published content (text, images, figures, datasets, audio-visual elements, and supplementary materials) where AI tools are used for generation, analysis, editing, translation, visualization, or review.
• Core Principles: AI tools cannot be authors. Human authors remain fully responsible for all content produced or edited using AI, and transparency in AI use is mandatory.
• Ethical Alignment: Follows COPE’s position that AI tools are not legal entities, cannot accept accountability, and cannot fulfill authorship requirements or manage conflicts of interest, copyright, or licenses.

Authorship and Accountability

Non-Authorship of AI Tools

AI systems (e.g., large language models, image generators) must not be listed as authors or co-authors under any circumstances because they cannot take responsibility for the work or manage ethical and legal obligations.

Author Responsibility

Human authors are fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, ethical compliance, and integrity of all manuscript content, including parts generated or edited with AI, and are liable for any breach of publication ethics.

Critical Revision

When AI-generated text is used, authors must critically review and revise it for intellectual substance and accuracy to meet standard authorship criteria, as reflected in prevailing editorial practices implementing COPE’s guidance.

Permissible AI Uses

Acceptable only with full transparency and human verification:

• Language Support:

Grammar, clarity, translation, and style editing.

• Workflow Assistance:

Citation formatting checks, reference management, and metadata organization.

• Visualization:

Generating charts from author-provided data, with tools named in captions and methods described.

• Idea Organization:

Outlining and summarizing, provided original analysis is authored by humans.

Prohibited AI Uses

Strictly forbidden and subject to editorial sanction:

• Data Fabrication / Manipulation:

Creating, altering, or falsifying research data, measurements, images (e.g., blots), or audio-visual evidence.

• Undisclosed Content Generation:

Submitting AI-generated text or media as original author work without disclosure and critical revision.

• Style Imitation of Creators:

Generating images or texts that reproduce distinctive artistic styles without appropriate rights and acknowledgment.

Disclosure Requirements

• Location of Disclosure: Detail AI use in the Methods, Acknowledgments, or a dedicated “AI Use” subsection (for creative practice, also in captions or notes).
• Specifics to Disclose: Tool names and versions, purposes (e.g., translation, summarization, figure rendering), prompts when material is substantively shaped by AI, and human verification steps taken.
• Record Keeping: Maintain draft histories and prompts for editorial inspection when requested.

Submission Standards

AI Use Statement:

Include a clear statement at submission and in the manuscript.

Example: “We used [Tool, Version] for language editing/translation; all content was reviewed and revised by the authors.”
Figure and Media Captions:

List any generative or rendering tools used to produce figures from original data, including methods for verification and accuracy checks.

Data and Provenance:

Provide provenance for datasets and media; disclose any algorithmic processing and ensure it does not misrepresent original materials.

Review, Detection & Actions

• Screening:

Editors use similarity checks and targeted review to identify undisclosed AI content; reviewers may confidentially flag concerns.

• Clarifications & Corrections:

If AI use is insufficiently disclosed, authors will be requested to clarify, correct, or provide verification logs.

• Editorial Sanctions:

Pre-publication: Revisions for minor omissions; rejection for prohibited use.
Post-publication: Corrections, retractions, or submission embargoes for serious breaches.

Arts & Cultural Materials

• Cultural Sensitivity:

When processing cultural heritage materials (e.g., performances, ritual documentation), ensure rights, consent, and accurate contextualization. Avoid AI transformations that distort meaning or misattribute authorship.

• Attribution and Rights:

Credit cultural practitioners, communities, and custodians. Obtain permissions for third-party materials and disclose any AI transformations applied to preserve provenance and integrity.