This statement applies to every journal of Peninsula Publishing Press. It follows the COPE position on authorship and AI tools and the expectations of journals that are indexed, or that seek indexing, in Scopus. Scopus content selection requires a stated peer-review process and a publication-ethics policy. Undisclosed machine-generated text, fabricated references and paper-mill output are treated as misconduct.
AI tools cannot be authors
COPE’s position is that AI tools cannot meet the requirements for authorship because they cannot take responsibility for the submitted work. They cannot declare the presence or absence of a conflict of interest, and they cannot manage copyright and licence agreements. Peninsula adopts that position. A generative AI tool is not listed as an author and is not cited as the origin of a scholarly claim.
What authors must disclose
Authors may use tools to prepare a manuscript. Significant use must be disclosed, in enough detail for a reader and an editor to see what was done. Significant use includes:
- Drafting, rewriting or translating text with a generative AI tool.
- Producing or altering images, figures or other graphical elements with a generative AI tool.
- Using an AI tool to collect, code or analyse data, or to generate code on which the results depend.
The disclosure names the tool, the version or date of use where it is known, and the task it performed. It appears in the Methods where the tool affected data, analysis or images, and in the Methods or the Acknowledgements where it was used for language. Routine spelling and grammar checks that do not generate content need not be listed.
All authors confirm that they are responsible for the entire manuscript, however any part of it was produced. That responsibility covers invented or biased wording, plagiarised passages, errors, and references that the tool has created and that do not exist. The journal may reject a manuscript, or correct or retract a published article, if the disclosure is missing or if the use of the tool misrepresents the evidence.
What is not allowed
- Listing an AI tool as an author.
- Fabricating data, images, participants or references with an AI tool, or presenting AI output as if it were an observation.
- Using an AI tool to produce a peer-review report, or uploading a manuscript or a report to such a tool. See below.
- Submitting a paper whose scholarly content was generated to order by a paper mill, whether or not an AI tool was part of that service.
Reviewers and editors
A manuscript under review is confidential. Reviewers and editors must not upload the manuscript, any part of it, or their report to a generative AI tool, including for language polishing. That upload can disclose unpublished work, identify authors, and breach data-protection duties. Peer review is a human judgement. The reviewer signs the report and is accountable for it. This is the same standard as the COPE Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers and the confidentiality rules on the Peer Review page.
Similarity screening
Submissions are screened with Turnitin, including its indicator for AI-generated text. A high indicator is not, by itself, a finding of misconduct. The editor reads the manuscript, asks the authors to explain where a tool was used, and then decides. Concealment of significant use is a breach of this policy.
Relation to Scopus
Journals that are indexed in Scopus, and journals that intend to be considered, are expected to show a transparent review process and to deal with publication ethics, including manipulated content. SHIFRA’s indexing page lists Scopus. The other journals state their current indexing on their own pages. This AI statement is part of the ethics record those services look for: authors disclose AI use, AI is not an author, reviewers do not put confidential manuscripts into external AI tools, and undisclosed or fabricated AI content can lead to rejection or retraction under the COPE retraction guidelines.
Peninsula Publishing Press · Peninsula Publishing L.L.C., Dubai · support@peninsula-press.ae · In force 30 October 2026 · COPE Core Practices
