Responsible Use of Artificial Intelligence at the Virtualia Journal

Purpose of the document

This CRediT-IA Statement establishes the formal guidelines for the declaration, identification, and accountability of the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools in manuscripts submitted to the Virtualia Journal.

This document brings together current editorial best practices regarding the use of AI in academic research, in accordance with:

the Contributor Roles Taxonomy (CRediT);
the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE);
emerging policies of major international publishers and scholarly journals;
the ethical principles of the Philosophy Area (CAPES – Area 33).

The use of AI is recognized exclusively as instrumental and shall never substitute human intellectual work.

Fundamental principles

The use of Artificial Intelligence in submissions to the Virtualia Journal must strictly comply with the following principles:

Exclusive human authorship: AI systems may not, under any circumstances, be considered authors or co-authors.
Full human intellectual responsibility: human authors bear full responsibility for the content, arguments, data, and conclusions of the manuscript.
Transparency: any use of AI must be explicitly and clearly declared.
Instrumentality: AI may be used only as a technical support tool (e.g., language editing, textual organization, translation).
Decision-making prohibition: AI tools must not be used for editorial decisions or for the preparation of peer-review reports.
Traceability: the declared use must allow a clear understanding of the role played by AI in the research and writing process.

3. Scope of application

This statement applies to:

authors;
editors;
reviewers;
guest editors and dossier organizers.

All parties involved in the editorial process must observe the same ethical principles regarding the use of AI.

Mandatory declaration of AI use (CRediT-IA)

Whenever AI tools are used, authors must include, at the time of submission and in the final manuscript, a CRediT-IA Statement containing the following mandatory information:

4.1 AI tool used

Name of the AI tool employed (e.g., ChatGPT, DeepL, Grammarly, etc.).

4.2 Version / model

Indication of the version, model, or system used, when applicable (e.g., GPT-4, GPT-4o, DeepL Pro, etc.).

4.3 Purpose of use

Objective description of the purpose of AI use, such as:

linguistic or grammatical revision;
translation;
textual organization or restructuring;
limited technical assistance.

4.4 Type of use

Classification of the type of use, for example:

linguistic support;
technical support;
organizational support.

The use of AI for the autonomous generation of philosophical arguments or critical judgments is not permitted.

4.5 Limits of use

Explicit description of the limits imposed on the use of the tool, indicating what was not performed with AI support.

4.6 Human responsibility

Explicit declaration that:

all intellectual, argumentative, and interpretative decisions are of human authorship;
the authors critically reviewed all AI-assisted content;
the authors assume full ethical and academic responsibility for the final text.

4.7 Confirmation of human responsibility

Mandatory final declaration, in the following terms or equivalent:

“ I confirm that the use of Artificial Intelligence tools in this manuscript was strictly instrumental, duly declared, and that I assume full human responsibility for the content, arguments, and conclusions presented.”

Relationship with the CRediT taxonomy

The CRediT-IA Statement complements the Contributor Roles Taxonomy (CRediT), allowing AI use to be explicitly declared without compromising the principle of human authorship.

AI must not be listed as an author or contributor and must be described exclusively as a tool within the scope of the specific declaration.

Use of AI by editors and reviewers

Editors and reviewers may use AI only as limited technical support (e.g., linguistic revision of communications), never for intellectual evaluation, editorial decision-making, or the formulation of peer-review reports.

Any use of AI by editors or reviewers must comply with the same principles of transparency, instrumentality, and human accountability.

Non-compliance

Failure to comply with the guidelines of this Statement may result in:

rejection of the manuscript;
requests for corrections or clarifications;
retraction of the publication, when applicable.

Document update

This CRediT-IA Statement may be periodically revised by the Editorial Board of the Virtualia Journal in order to follow technological, ethical, and regulatory developments related to the use of Artificial Intelligence in academic research.