Artificial Intelligence (AI) Usage Policy

Authors may use generative AI or AI-assisted technologies to support activities such as language improvement, literature organization, idea development, transcription support, coding assistance, data exploration, media-content organization, or manuscript preparation. AI tools must not replace the authors' critical thinking, scholarly judgment, communication analysis, interpretation, or original contribution.

Authors are responsible for:

• verifying factual accuracy and checking references generated by AI;
• reviewing and substantially editing AI-assisted content;
• checking for bias, hallucination, fabricated citations, or misleading communication-related information;
• protecting confidential interviews, private communications, personal data, copyrighted media, unpublished research data, and sensitive source material;
• independently verifying AI-assisted transcription, translation, coding, classification, sentiment analysis, media analysis, or interpretation; and
• ensuring that the final manuscript represents the authors' own scholarly work.

Meaningful use of generative AI in manuscript preparation must be disclosed in a separate AI Declaration. The declaration should identify the tool used, its purpose, and the extent of human review and oversight.

Basic spelling, grammar, or punctuation checks do not normally require disclosure. If AI forms part of the research method, transcription process, translation process, content analysis, discourse analysis, computational communication analysis, social-media analysis, image analysis, or data analysis, its use must be described in sufficient detail in the Methods section.

AI tools, chatbots, and language models must not be listed as authors or co-authors. Authorship requires human responsibility for the integrity of the work, approval of the final manuscript, accountability for its content, and the ability to respond to questions regarding the research.

Generative AI must not be used to create, manipulate, obscure, remove, or introduce features in research images, screenshots, audiovisual material, figures, media samples, visualizations, or other visual evidence in a manner that misrepresents the underlying research data.

An exception may apply when AI-assisted imaging, visualization, media generation, image classification, audiovisual analysis, or synthetic-media analysis is part of the research design or methodology. In such cases, authors must describe the tool, model/version, procedure, inputs, human validation, and its role in generating or interpreting research data in the Methods section.

Submitted manuscripts are confidential documents. Reviewers must not upload manuscripts, manuscript excerpts, interview transcripts, private communications, media datasets, audiovisual files, supporting files, or review reports into public generative AI systems.

Peer review is a human scholarly responsibility. AI tools must not be used to generate scientific assessments, independently evaluate communication theories or methodological validity, assess manuscript quality, or determine review recommendations. Reviewers remain personally responsible for the content, accuracy, fairness, and integrity of their reports.

Editors must not upload submitted manuscripts, confidential correspondence, reviewer reports, author responses, interview transcripts, unpublished media data, or editorial decision letters into public generative AI systems.

AI must not replace human editorial judgment or be used to determine acceptance, revision, or rejection. Editors remain fully responsible for editorial evaluation, reviewer selection, communication, confidentiality management, conflict-of-interest management, and final publication decisions.