COPE position statement
The use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools such as ChatGPT or Large Language Models in research publications is expanding rapidly. COPE joins organisations, such as WAME and the JAMA Network among others, to state that AI tools cannot be listed as an author of a paper.
AI tools cannot meet the requirements for authorship as they cannot take responsibility for the submitted work. As non-legal entities, they cannot assert the presence or absence of conflicts of interest nor manage copyright and license agreements.
Authors who use AI tools in the writing of a manuscript, production of images or graphical elements of the paper, or in the collection and analysis of data, must be transparent in disclosing in the Materials and Methods (or similar section) of the paper how the AI tool was used and which tool was used. Authors are fully responsible for the content of their manuscript, even those parts produced by an AI tool, and are thus liable for any breach of publication ethics.
Related resources
- Artificial intelligence in decision making, COPE discussion document, Sept 2021
- AI and fake papers, COPE Forum discussion, March 2023
- Artificial intelligence in the news, latest update, April 2023
- Artificial intelligence and authorship, COPE editorial, February 2023
- The challenge of AI chatbots for journal editors, guest editorial, February 2023
- COPE position statements
Page history
First published: 13 February 2023