Reviewers play a confidential role in the editorial process of the Journal of Computers, Mechanical and Management. 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 COPE and with current best practice across major scholarly publishers.
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, Gemini, Claude, Copilot, and comparable services. Manuscripts under review are confidential documents, and 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.
Even where a tool offers an enterprise option that claims not to retain or train on inputs, reviewers must verify the data-handling terms before using the tool with manuscript content. Where verification is not possible, the tool must not be used.
Reviewers may use AI tools for purposes that do not involve the manuscript content, including:
The substantive content of a peer-review report, that is, 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.
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, with sufficient detail for the editor to assess any confidentiality implications.
A reviewer found to have breached this policy may be removed from the journal's reviewer pool. Where the breach affects a specific manuscript, the journal will inform the authors and may require additional reviews to ensure that the editorial decision is sound.
The editorial team and the publisher do not use generative AI to make editorial decisions or to write decision letters. AI tools may be used by the editorial team for administrative tasks, for example similarity checking through licensed services, and any such use is subject to the journal's broader confidentiality and data-handling commitments.
The journal's Article Processing Charge will move from USD 250 to USD 1,000 for manuscripts submitted from 1 October 2026 onwards. Submissions received on or before 30 September 2026 (23:59 UTC) will continue to be processed at USD 250. A tiered waiver scheme based on the World Bank country classification applies from 1 October 2026.
