Generative AI Policy

Al-Mubtadi: Jurnal Pendidikan Guru Madrasah Ibtidaiyah recognizes the growing role of generative artificial intelligence (AI) in academic research, writing, and scholarly publishing. The journal supports the responsible, transparent, and ethical use of AI tools while maintaining academic integrity, research originality, and human accountability.

This policy applies to authors, reviewers, and editors involved in the manuscript submission, peer-review, and publication processes.

1. Use of Generative AI by Authors

Authors may use generative AI tools to support limited tasks, such as language improvement, grammar correction, translation, and assistance with organizing ideas. However, AI tools must not replace the authors' intellectual contributions, critical analysis, interpretation of research findings, or responsibility for the scholarly content of their manuscripts.

Authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, validity, and integrity of their submissions, including any content generated or modified with AI assistance.

2. Disclosure of AI Use

Authors must disclose the use of generative AI tools when such use has contributed substantively to the preparation, analysis, or presentation of the manuscript. The disclosure should identify the AI tool used, explain its purpose, and describe the nature of its contribution.

A disclosure statement may be included in a dedicated section of the manuscript, such as an Acknowledgments or Declaration of AI Use section, as appropriate.

The use of basic spelling, grammar, or reference-management tools does not ordinarily require disclosure unless the journal specifies otherwise. Authors must not falsely claim that AI-generated content was produced entirely through their own unaided work.

3. Prohibited and Unacceptable Uses

The following uses of generative AI are unacceptable:

• Fabricating or falsifying research data, results, evidence, or references.

• Presenting AI-generated content as verified research findings without appropriate human evaluation.

• Producing misleading, plagiarized, or substantially unoriginal content.

• Using AI to manipulate citations, peer review, or editorial decisions.

• Uploading confidential manuscripts, unpublished research, personal data, or sensitive information to AI tools without appropriate authorization and safeguards.

• Using AI in ways that violate research ethics, copyright, privacy, or other applicable requirements.

Authors must independently verify all facts, quotations, references, calculations, and interpretations produced or assisted by AI tools.

4. AI and Authorship

Generative AI tools cannot be listed as authors or co-authors because they cannot assume responsibility for the integrity of research, approve the final manuscript, or fulfill the ethical obligations of authorship.

Authorship must be limited to individuals who meet appropriate scholarly authorship criteria and accept responsibility for their contributions. Authors remain accountable for all content included in their manuscripts, regardless of whether AI tools were used.

5. Responsibilities of Reviewers

Reviewers must not upload submitted manuscripts or confidential review materials to public or third-party generative AI tools when doing so could compromise confidentiality, intellectual property, or the peer-review process.

Reviewers must provide independent, evidence-based assessments and remain responsible for the accuracy and integrity of their review reports. AI tools must not replace the reviewer's scholarly judgment or be used to generate unsupported evaluations.

Any use of AI in reviewing must comply with the journal's confidentiality requirements and applicable editorial guidance.

6. Responsibilities of Editors

Editors must exercise independent scholarly judgment when assessing manuscripts and making editorial decisions. Generative AI tools may only be used for appropriate administrative or language-support tasks where confidentiality, accuracy, and fairness can be maintained.

Editors must not disclose confidential manuscript information to unauthorized AI systems. Editorial decisions must remain under human responsibility and must not be delegated entirely to generative AI tools.

7. Research Ethics, Copyright, and Data Protection

The use of generative AI must comply with applicable research ethics standards, copyright requirements, privacy protections, and institutional regulations. Authors are responsible for ensuring that AI-assisted work does not infringe the rights of others or compromise the confidentiality of research participants and other individuals.

Where research involves human participants or sensitive data, authors must ensure that the use of AI does not violate informed consent, ethical approval requirements, or applicable data-protection obligations.

8. Editorial Assessment and Policy Enforcement

The editorial team may request clarification or additional information regarding the use of AI in a submitted manuscript when necessary. Undisclosed or inappropriate AI use may lead to requests for revision, rejection, correction, or other appropriate action, depending on the nature and seriousness of the issue.

All concerns will be assessed fairly and in accordance with the journal's publication ethics and research integrity policies. The use of AI alone does not automatically constitute misconduct; the assessment will consider transparency, accuracy, authorship responsibility, and compliance with this policy.

9. Policy Review

Al-Mubtadi may periodically update this policy to reflect developments in AI technology, scholarly publishing standards, and research ethics. Authors, reviewers, and editors are expected to follow the version of the policy applicable to their editorial or publishing activities.

Al-Mubtadi is committed to promoting the responsible use of generative AI while safeguarding scholarly integrity, human accountability, and the quality of academic publishing.