Generative AI Policies

Research in Humanistic Futures of Education (RHFE) recognizes the rapid development of artificial intelligence technologies, including Generative Artificial Intelligence or Generative AI, in educational research and academic writing. This policy is intended to ensure that the use of AI is transparent, responsible, ethical, and consistent with the originality, reliability, validity, and integrity of published scholarly work.
GENERATIVE AI USE POLICY
1 Introduction
RHFE recognizes the increasing use of artificial intelligence in educational research, data analysis, academic writing, translation, language editing, and scholarly communication. This policy provides guidance for authors, editors, and reviewers in using Generative AI ethically and responsibly throughout the publication process.
2 General Principles
• The use of Generative AI in educational research, data processing, and article preparation must be transparent, responsible, and academically justified.
• Authors remain fully responsible for the originality, accuracy, integrity, ethical compliance, and scholarly substance of the manuscript.
• Generative AI must not replace the critical thinking, pedagogical reasoning, theoretical analysis, methodological judgment, and scholarly synthesis expected from human authors.
3 Guidelines for the Use of Generative AI
Transparency When Generative AI is used for writing assistance, translation, language editing, coding, data processing, visualization, or analysis, authors must clearly disclose its use in the methodology, acknowledgements, declaration section, or article footnotes.
Accountability Generative AI tools cannot be listed as authors or co-authors. Human authors remain fully responsible for all arguments, interpretations, data, references, findings, conclusions, and ethical obligations.
Validation All AI-assisted text, data, references, calculations, interpretations, or analytical outputs must be critically reviewed and independently verified by the authors before submission.
Ethics Authors must ensure that AI use does not result in plagiarism, copyright infringement, fabricated data, discriminatory content, privacy violations, or unauthorized processing of participant information.
Confidentiality Confidential research data, unpublished manuscripts, student records, participant identities, interview transcripts, and sensitive institutional information must not be entered into public AI systems without appropriate authorization and protection.
References Authors must personally verify every reference, citation, DOI, quotation, and bibliographic detail. AI-generated references must not be used unless their accuracy and existence have been confirmed.
4 Permitted Uses of Generative AI
• Language editing, grammar improvement, spelling correction, and readability enhancement.
• Translation assistance, provided that the authors verify the accuracy, meaning, and academic terminology.
• Technical assistance with coding, data organization, transcription, visualization, or statistical processing, subject to author verification.
• Brainstorming or structural assistance that does not replace the author’s intellectual contribution, interpretation, and scholarly judgment.
5 Prohibited Uses of Generative AI
• Generative AI must not be used to fabricate, manipulate, engineer, or falsify research data, participant responses, findings, or images.
• Generative AI must not be used to create references, citations, quotations, statistics, or sources that cannot be independently verified.
• Generative AI must not be used to produce an entire manuscript without substantive intellectual, methodological, and analytical contributions from human authors.
• Confidential manuscripts, reviewer reports, editorial correspondence, or unpublished research data must not be uploaded to public AI platforms without permission.
• AI must not be used to conceal plagiarism, duplicate publication, manipulated evidence, unethical research, or other violations of publication integrity.
6 Use of AI by Reviewers and Editors
Editors and reviewers must protect manuscript confidentiality. Unpublished manuscripts, reviewer comments, editorial records, or author information must not be uploaded to public Generative AI tools. AI may not replace independent editorial judgment or expert peer review.
7 Suggested AI Disclosure Statement
Authors who use Generative AI should include a clear statement, such as: “The authors used [name of AI tool and version] for [specific purpose]. All AI-assisted content was reviewed, verified, and revised by the authors, who accept full responsibility for the final manuscript.”
8 Sanctions and Consequences
Violations of this policy may result in a request for clarification or revision, rejection of the manuscript, suspension of editorial processing, correction, expression of concern, retraction of a published article, or other appropriate actions according to the seriousness of the violation.
9 Policy Review and Revision
This policy will be reviewed periodically in response to technological developments, emerging ethical concerns, scholarly publishing standards, data-protection requirements, and relevant regulations. RHFE reserves the right to revise this policy to protect academic and publication integrity.
10 Closing Statement
RHFE supports the ethical, transparent, and responsible use of technology in educational scholarship. This policy forms part of the journal’s commitment to maintaining the quality, credibility, originality, reliability, and humanistic values of published research.
Note for Authors
The use of Generative AI does not reduce or transfer an author’s academic responsibility. Authors must independently verify all data, references, quotations, analyses, arguments, interpretations, and conclusions before submitting a manuscript to RHFE.