Artificial Intelligence (AI) Usage Policy

Authors may use generative AI or AI-assisted technologies to support activities such as language improvement, literature organization, idea development, coding support, data exploration, educational-data analysis, visualization, or manuscript preparation. AI tools must not replace the authors' critical thinking, scholarly judgment, educational interpretation, pedagogical reasoning, methodological evaluation, or original scientific contribution.

Authors are responsible for:

• verifying factual accuracy and checking references generated by AI;
• reviewing and substantially editing AI-assisted content;
• checking for bias, hallucination, fabricated citations, misleading educational claims, or incorrect interpretations;
• protecting confidential, personal, copyrighted, proprietary, student, teacher, institutional, and unpublished data;
• independently validating AI-assisted calculations, educational analyses, assessment interpretations, code, models, or statistical results; and
• ensuring that the final manuscript represents the authors' own scholarly work.

Meaningful use of generative AI in manuscript preparation must be disclosed in a separate AI Declaration. The declaration should identify the tool used, its purpose, and the extent of human review and oversight.

Basic spelling, grammar, or punctuation checks do not normally require disclosure. If AI forms part of the research method, learning analytics, educational-data analysis, automated assessment, modelling, coding, adaptive-learning analysis, or statistical workflow, its use must be described in sufficient detail in the Methods section.

AI tools, chatbots, and language models must not be listed as authors or co-authors. Authorship requires human responsibility for the integrity of the work, approval of the final manuscript, accountability for its scientific content, and the ability to respond to questions regarding educational data, research methods, analyses, interpretations, and conclusions.

Generative AI must not be used to create, manipulate, obscure, remove, or introduce features in research images, classroom photographs, assessment evidence, charts, graphs, screenshots, educational materials, or figures submitted as scientific evidence.

An exception may apply when AI-assisted imaging, automated content analysis, image classification, pattern recognition, educational technology, or visualization is an explicit part of the research design or methodology. In such cases, authors must describe the tool, model/version, procedure, input data, validation process, and its role in generating or interpreting research data in the Methods section.

Submitted manuscripts are confidential documents. Reviewers must not upload manuscripts, manuscript excerpts, student data, teacher information, institutional records, assessment instruments, supporting files, or review reports into generative AI systems.

Peer review is a human scholarly responsibility. AI tools must not be used to generate scientific assessments, independently evaluate educational validity, interpret research findings, assess manuscript quality, or determine review recommendations. Reviewers remain personally responsible for the content and integrity of their reports.

Editors must not upload submitted manuscripts, confidential correspondence, reviewer reports, unpublished student or institutional data, educational records, research instruments, or editorial decision letters into public generative AI systems.

AI must not replace human editorial judgment or be used to determine acceptance, revision, or rejection. Editors remain fully responsible for editorial evaluation, communication, scientific oversight, and final publication decisions.