International Surgery Artificial Intelligence (AI) Policy

As editor-in-chief of International Surgery, I know that our goal is to serve authors in research and medical institutions all over the world. We have only one preference, which is to communicate credible scientific and medical research information around the world regardless of the country or scientific and medical research institution involved. The goal of International Surgery is to support an inclusive, diverse, and equitable scholarly communications environment by delivering free or low-cost online access to researchers of professional peer-reviewed content.

Several questions pertaining to artificial intelligence (AI) exist with many of the questions remaining unresolved in the overall scientific and medical publishing industry. We at International Surgery do not pretend to have answers to these questions. We do suggest some clarifications in reference to AI definitions, disclosure, author responsibilities, and transparency declarations.

A definition of AI includes technologies that use machine learning, logical reasoning, knowledge representation, planning and navigation, natural language processing, perception, and emergent intelligence.

International Surgery requires all contributors and authors to disclose all details relating to the use of AI in any of the content being submitted to International Surgery. This includes original research, debate, opinion, journalism and all text, audio, video, and audio-visual material as well as abstracts, databases, tables, data, diagrams, photographs, and other images or illustrative materials.

In reference to responsibility, AI will not be considered as an author or coauthor for any material submitted for publication to International Surgery. Authorship and capacity for accountability of the work remains with the human authors. Contributors and authors are responsible for ensuring the absence of plagiarism in their work by verifying the accuracy of any content created by AI technology, and this includes the correct attribution of any sources used and the quality and validity of those sources.

To ensure transparent declaration of AI in reference to International Surgery, authors should include an acknowledgement of AI use. If the AI use was in the course of research, a fuller description should be given. The transparency declaration includes the what, why, and how of the AI technology used.

AI has become a key consideration in research endeavors. Definition, disclosure, responsibility, and transparency must be observed regarding all submissions to International Surgery.

I welcome any comments and questions that you may have.

Sincerely,

Professor Christopher Chen

Editor-in-Chief

International Surgery