In response to the increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools in academic publishing, Journal of Maritime Defense Technology (JMDT) has established a formal policy to uphold transparency, research integrity, ethical authorship, and responsible scholarly communication.

Authors are permitted to use AI-assisted technologies, such as ChatGPT, Grammarly, DeepL, or similar tools, strictly for enhancing language quality, grammar, clarity, or writing style. However, AI tools must not be used to generate novel scientific content, research findings, hypotheses, technical claims, defense analysis, strategic interpretations, or conclusions without proper human verification and scholarly responsibility.

Any use of AI-assisted tools must be explicitly disclosed in the manuscript under a separate section titled “Declaration of AI Use.” This declaration must include the name of the AI tool, the purpose of its use, and the extent to which it was used in manuscript preparation. AI tools cannot be credited as authors or co-authors because they do not meet the criteria for authorship responsibility, accountability, originality, and ethical approval.

JMDT strictly prohibits the use of AI tools to fabricate, alter, or manipulate research data, images, graphs, figures, technical diagrams, maritime maps, surveillance outputs, system models, or defense-related illustrations. AI-generated or AI-assisted visual materials may only be used when they form a core part of the research methodology. In such cases, authors must provide detailed documentation of the tool, parameters, prompts, data sources, and procedures used in the Methods section.

Manuscripts involving maritime defense systems, naval technology, cybersecurity, autonomous maritime systems, surveillance technology, or strategic defense analysis must ensure that AI tools are not used to generate misleading technical descriptions, unauthorized simulations, fabricated data, or unsupported operational claims. Authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, legality, and ethical integrity of all content submitted to the journal.

In the peer review process, reviewers are not allowed to input manuscript content, data, figures, tables, or confidential materials into any AI tool due to confidentiality, intellectual property, and data privacy concerns. Editors may use AI-assisted tools for limited administrative purposes, such as grammar checking, similarity checking, or workflow support, but all editorial judgments and publication decisions must remain under direct human oversight.

Misuse of AI tools or failure to disclose their use may lead to manuscript rejection, article retraction, correction, expression of concern, or notification to the author’s institution, depending on the severity of the violation.

This policy aligns with responsible publishing practices and will be updated periodically as AI technologies and academic publishing standards continue to evolve. JMDT remains committed to promoting responsible research practices and safeguarding the quality, credibility, and trustworthiness of scholarly work in maritime defense technology, maritime security, and naval innovation.