Use of AI Tools by Reviewers — IJAERD
🤖 Use of Artificial Intelligence Tools by Reviewers
IJAERD — International Journal of Advance Engineering and Research Development
Aligned with COPE guidance and current best practice across major scholarly publishers.
🚫 Core Prohibition: Reviewers must not upload manuscripts under review — in whole or in part — to public or third-party generative AI tools. This constitutes a breach of confidentiality and is grounds for removal from the reviewer pool.
📄 Overview
Reviewers play a confidential role in the editorial process of IJAERD. The use of artificial intelligence tools by reviewers raises specific confidentiality concerns that are addressed by this policy. The journal's position aligns with guidance from the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and with current best practice across major scholarly publishers.
1. Manuscripts Must Not Be Uploaded to Public AI Tools
Reviewers must not upload manuscripts under review, in whole or in part, to public or third-party generative AI tools, including but not limited to:
🚫 ChatGPT
🚫 Google Gemini
🚫 Claude (Anthropic)
🚫 Microsoft Copilot
🚫 Meta AI
🚫 Perplexity AI
🚫 Any comparable LLM service
Manuscripts under review are confidential documents. Uploading them to such tools constitutes a breach of confidentiality. It also exposes the manuscript to potential incorporation into model training data and to unknown retention by the service provider — risks that affect the authors' intellectual property and the integrity of the editorial process.
2. AI Tools That Retain or Train on Inputs
Even where a tool offers an enterprise or privacy option that claims not to retain or train on inputs, reviewers must verify the data-handling terms before using the tool with any manuscript content. Where verification is not possible or the terms are unclear, the tool must not be used with manuscript content under any circumstances.
3. Permitted — Limited Uses Not Involving Manuscript Content
Reviewers may use AI tools for purposes that do not involve the manuscript content:
🔬
✓ General Methodological Reference
Asking a tool to explain a statistical concept or method in the abstract, without sharing any manuscript content (e.g. "Explain principal component analysis" — not "Assess whether this paper's use of PCA is correct").
🌐
✓ Generic Terminology Translation
Translating short, generic technical terms where the reviewer's working language differs from the manuscript language, without submitting manuscript text.
✏
✓ Language Editing of the Reviewer's Report
Editing the language of the reviewer's own draft report before submission, provided no manuscript content — no text, data, figures, or methods — is included in the prompt submitted to the tool.
4. The Review Must Be the Reviewer's Own Work
The substantive content of a peer-review report — the assessment of the manuscript's originality, methodology, results, and contribution — must be the reviewer's own intellectual work. AI-generated reviews are not acceptable, whether in whole or in part.
⚠ Why this matters: Peer review is a scholarly contribution. An AI-generated review does not reflect the expertise for which the reviewer was selected, does not protect manuscript confidentiality, and does not constitute the independent scholarly assessment that the editorial process requires.
5. Disclosure
If, in the course of preparing a review, a reviewer has used an AI tool in any way that touches on the manuscript content, the reviewer must disclose this to the handling editor in the comments-to-editor field of the review form. The disclosure must include sufficient detail for the editor to assess any confidentiality implications — specifically: the tool used, the nature of the use, and what manuscript content (if any) was shared.
6. Consequences of Breach
⚠Removal from IJAERD's reviewer pool
⚠Notification of the affected authors
⚠Requirement for additional independent reviews to ensure the editorial decision is sound
⚠Report to the reviewer's institution where the breach is severe
7. The Journal's Own Use of AI
The editorial team and KG Publication do not use generative AI to make editorial decisions or to write decision letters. AI tools may be used for administrative purposes — for example, similarity checking through licensed services. Any such use is subject to the journal's broader confidentiality and data-handling commitments as described in the Privacy Statement.
📋 Quick Reference Summary
🚫 NEVER Permitted
✖Uploading manuscript text to any AI tool
✖Uploading figures, data, or methods from the manuscript
✖Using AI to write the substantive review assessment
✖Using AI tools whose data-handling terms are unverified
✓ Permitted (with care)
✓Asking AI about generic methodological concepts (no manuscript text)
✓Translating generic terminology (no manuscript text)
✓Language editing of your own review draft (no manuscript text)
✓Any use where no manuscript content is provided to the tool
ℹ This policy is effective from September 2026 and is reviewed annually. For queries, contact the Editor-in-Chief at
editor.ijaerd@gmail.com.
