Generative AI Policies

Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) Policy

1. Introduction

Legal Autonomous Web-based Governance (LAW) recognizes that Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) and other AI-assisted technologies are increasingly integrated into academic research, scholarly communication, legal analysis, technological development, and publication workflows. These technologies may support researchers and editorial teams in improving efficiency, language quality, information organization, and other legitimate scholarly activities.

However, the use of GenAI also raises important legal, ethical, intellectual property, privacy, accountability, and research integrity concerns. These challenges are particularly relevant to LAW because the journal focuses on the intersection of artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, web-based governance, digital law, human rights, and sustainable regulatory frameworks.

To uphold academic integrity, human accountability, transparency, confidentiality, and responsible digital governance, LAW establishes this Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) Policy. This policy applies to authors, reviewers, editors, editorial staff, and other individuals involved in the journal's submission, peer-review, editorial, and publication processes.

2. Guiding Principles

LAW supports the responsible and human-centered use of AI-assisted technologies based on the following principles:

  • Human intellectual contribution, professional judgment, and scholarly responsibility must remain central to every published work.
  • AI technologies may function only as supporting tools and must not replace independent legal reasoning, scientific analysis, critical thinking, or scholarly judgment.
  • The use of AI must be transparent and appropriately disclosed when it materially contributes to the preparation of scholarly work.
  • Authors and other contributors remain fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, legality, integrity, and ethical compliance of their work.
  • AI use must respect privacy, confidentiality, intellectual property, data protection, human rights, and applicable laws and regulations.
  • The use of AI should promote responsible, human-centric, transparent, and accountable digital governance.

3. Policy for Authors

3.1 Acceptable Uses

Authors may use Generative AI and AI-assisted tools for limited and responsible purposes, including:

  • improving grammar, spelling, syntax, and academic language;
  • enhancing readability and clarity;
  • assisting with manuscript organization and formatting;
  • generating preliminary outlines, summaries, or brainstorming materials;
  • supporting coding documentation or technical formatting;
  • assisting with translation or language refinement; and
  • supporting other editorial activities that do not replace the authors' intellectual contribution.

AI tools must not replace the authors' own legal reasoning, theoretical development, methodological decisions, analysis of legal materials or empirical evidence, interpretation of findings, or scholarly conclusions.

For manuscripts addressing AI governance, autonomous systems, digital law, or related technological subjects, authors must exercise particular care to ensure that AI-assisted analysis does not introduce inaccurate legal interpretations, fabricated authorities, unsupported claims, or misleading representations of technological capabilities.

3.2 Mandatory Disclosure

Authors must disclose the use of Generative AI when such technology contributes materially to manuscript preparation beyond routine spelling, grammar, or language correction.

The disclosure should identify:

  • the name of the AI system or tool used;
  • the purpose and nature of its use; and
  • confirmation that all AI-assisted outputs were critically reviewed, verified, and approved by the authors.

The declaration should be placed before the References section.

Example:

Declaration of Generative AI Use

During the preparation of this manuscript, the authors used ChatGPT (OpenAI) to assist with language refinement and manuscript organization. All AI-assisted outputs were critically reviewed, revised where necessary, and independently verified by the authors. The authors accept full responsibility for the accuracy, originality, integrity, and final content of the manuscript.

3.3 Author Responsibility and Accountability

The use of AI does not diminish or transfer authorship responsibilities. Authors remain fully responsible for:

  • the originality and scholarly contribution of the manuscript;
  • the accuracy of factual and legal claims;
  • the accuracy and authenticity of citations and references;
  • the validity of research methods and findings;
  • the interpretation of legal, technological, or empirical evidence;
  • compliance with applicable laws, regulations, and ethical standards;
  • protection of personal, confidential, and sensitive information; and
  • the final conclusions and recommendations presented in the manuscript.

AI systems must not be treated as authoritative sources of law, legal interpretation, scientific evidence, or factual verification without independent human assessment.

3.4 Unacceptable Uses

LAW does not permit authors to:

  • list AI systems as authors or co-authors;
  • use AI to fabricate data, legal authorities, cases, regulations, experiments, findings, or research results;
  • generate fictitious or unverifiable citations and references;
  • manipulate evidence, images, datasets, or research findings through deceptive AI use;
  • misrepresent AI-generated material as entirely original human scholarship;
  • submit substantially AI-generated scholarly work without meaningful human intellectual contribution;
  • use AI to circumvent plagiarism, originality, or research-integrity requirements; or
  • disclose confidential, personal, or restricted information to AI systems in violation of applicable privacy, confidentiality, or data-protection obligations.

4. AI-Generated Figures, Images, Multimedia, and Computational Content

Figures, illustrations, graphical abstracts, visualizations, multimedia materials, or other substantial content generated or modified using AI technologies must be disclosed where such use materially affects the content or representation.

Authors are responsible for ensuring that AI-assisted visual and computational materials:

  • accurately represent the underlying research;
  • do not fabricate or distort evidence;
  • are appropriately labeled where necessary;
  • comply with copyright, licensing, intellectual property, and attribution requirements; and
  • do not misrepresent legal, scientific, technological, or empirical information.

For research involving autonomous systems, algorithmic governance, robotics, or AI-generated evidence, authors must clearly distinguish between real-world evidence, simulated outputs, conceptual illustrations, and AI-generated representations.

The Editorial Board may request original datasets, source files, methodological documentation, or other supporting materials when necessary to verify the integrity of AI-assisted content.

5. Policy for Reviewers

Peer review at LAW is confidential and must remain independent of unauthorized external processing.

Reviewers must not upload or disclose submitted manuscripts, unpublished research, reviewer reports, datasets, legal documents, confidential correspondence, figures, supplementary materials, or other confidential information to publicly accessible or external Generative AI systems unless such use is expressly authorized and consistent with applicable confidentiality requirements.

Reviewers must not use Generative AI to:

  • generate or substantially compose peer-review reports;
  • replace independent scholarly evaluation;
  • make judgments regarding the originality, legal significance, methodological validity, or scholarly contribution of a manuscript; or
  • formulate acceptance, revision, or rejection recommendations.

Review reports and recommendations must reflect the reviewer's own professional expertise, critical assessment, and independent judgment.

6. Policy for Editors and Editorial Staff

Editors and editorial staff may use AI-assisted technologies only for limited administrative or editorial-support purposes, provided that confidentiality and data-protection requirements are maintained.

Permitted activities may include:

  • language and formatting assistance;
  • administrative workflow support;
  • identification of obvious formatting or consistency issues;
  • metadata organization; and
  • other routine editorial tasks that do not replace human editorial judgment.

Editors and editorial staff must not rely on AI systems to independently:

  • determine the scientific or legal quality of a manuscript;
  • establish originality or novelty;
  • assess the validity of legal reasoning or research findings;
  • make peer-review decisions;
  • determine acceptance, revision, or rejection; or
  • make final editorial decisions.

All editorial decisions remain the responsibility of the Editor-in-Chief and the Editorial Board.

7. Confidentiality, Privacy, and Data Protection

LAW recognizes confidentiality, privacy, and data protection as fundamental principles of responsible digital governance.

Unpublished manuscripts, reviewer reports, author correspondence, datasets, personal information, legal documents, and other editorial materials must be treated as confidential.

Authors, reviewers, editors, and editorial staff must ensure that confidential or personal information is not submitted to AI platforms that may retain, reuse, disclose, or otherwise process such information in ways inconsistent with applicable confidentiality and data-protection requirements.

The use of AI-assisted technologies must respect applicable privacy laws, intellectual property rights, research ethics, contractual obligations, and relevant international standards.

8. Research Integrity and Responsible AI Governance

LAW maintains a strong commitment to research integrity and responsible AI governance. Misconduct involving AI-assisted technologies may constitute a violation of the journal's publication ethics policies.

Potential violations include, but are not limited to:

  • fabrication;
  • falsification;
  • plagiarism;
  • citation manipulation;
  • deceptive use of AI-generated content;
  • unauthorized manipulation of images or research evidence;
  • misrepresentation of AI-generated material;
  • concealment of material AI use where disclosure is required; and
  • unauthorized disclosure or processing of confidential or personal information.

Where potential misconduct is identified, LAW may investigate the matter in accordance with its publication ethics procedures. Depending on the circumstances, editorial actions may include manuscript rejection, correction, expression of concern, retraction, or other appropriate measures.

9. Human-Centered and Responsible Use of AI

Consistent with LAW's mission, the use of AI in scholarly communication should remain grounded in human dignity, accountability, transparency, justice, and responsible technological governance.

Authors and contributors are encouraged to consider the broader legal and societal implications of AI technologies, particularly where research involves autonomous decision-making, digital human rights, privacy, data sovereignty, cultural identity, algorithmic accountability, or sustainable digital governance.

AI-assisted scholarship should contribute to the responsible development of digital ecosystems rather than undermine human agency, legal accountability, or public trust.

10. Editorial Rights

The LAW Editorial Board reserves the right to:

  • request clarification regarding the use of AI technologies;
  • require authors or contributors to provide additional AI-use disclosures;
  • request supporting materials where AI-assisted content requires verification;
  • take appropriate action when AI use conflicts with research integrity, confidentiality, intellectual property, or ethical requirements;
  • reject manuscripts that substantially violate this policy; and
  • revise this policy in response to developments in AI technologies, digital law, research ethics, and international scholarly standards.

Effective Date

This policy becomes effective upon publication on the official website of Legal Autonomous Web-based Governance (LAW) and applies to manuscripts submitted thereafter.

The policy may be periodically reviewed and updated to ensure alignment with emerging developments in Generative AI, autonomous systems, digital governance, legal regulation, and international publication-ethics standards.

References

This policy has been developed with consideration of internationally recognized guidance and principles concerning artificial intelligence, scholarly publishing, research integrity, and responsible AI use, including guidance from:

  • Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Artificial Intelligence and Authorship.
  • World Association of Medical Editors (WAME). Chatbots, Generative AI, and Scholarly Manuscripts.
  • International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers (STM). Guidance and recommendations concerning AI use in scholarly publishing.
  • Elsevier. The Use of Generative AI and AI-Assisted Technologies in Writing and Peer Review.
  • UNESCO. Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence.