Artificial Intelligence (AI) Usage Policy

Responsible Use of Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence (AI) & Generative AI Policy

Mercatura: Journal of Marketing supports responsible AI use while maintaining human accountability, research integrity, confidentiality, transparency, consumer protection, and responsible marketing scholarship.

HUMAN ACCOUNTABILITY AI DISCLOSURE CONFIDENTIALITY
✓ AI may assist manuscript preparation. ✓ Meaningful AI use must be disclosed.
✓ Authors remain fully responsible for all content. ✕ AI tools cannot be authors or co-authors.
✕ Reviewers/editors must not upload confidential manuscripts or consumer data to AI. ✕ AI must not replace human scientific or editorial judgment.
1. Use of AI by Authors

Authors may use generative AI or AI-assisted technologies to support activities such as language improvement, literature organization, idea development, consumer-data exploration, qualitative coding assistance, campaign-data organization, market analysis support, or manuscript preparation. AI tools must not replace the authors' critical thinking, scholarly judgment, marketing interpretation, consumer understanding, analysis, 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, misleading market information, or inaccurate consumer insights;
  • protecting confidential consumer data, customer records, CRM information, commercial data, campaign analytics, personal information, proprietary datasets, copyrighted material, and unpublished data;
  • independently verifying AI-assisted segmentation, classification, sentiment analysis, predictive outputs, consumer insights, calculations, or interpretations; and
  • ensuring that the final manuscript represents the authors' own scholarly work.
Important: Authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, integrity, ethical compliance, and responsible representation of consumers and markets in all submitted content, regardless of whether AI tools were used.
2. AI Disclosure

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.

Suggested AI Declaration
The authors used [tool/model name] for [specific purpose]. All AI-assisted outputs were critically reviewed, verified, and substantially revised by the authors. The authors take full responsibility for the accuracy, integrity, originality, and ethical appropriateness of the manuscript.

Basic spelling, grammar, or punctuation checks do not normally require disclosure. If AI forms part of the research method, consumer analytics, market segmentation, sentiment analysis, predictive modeling, advertising analysis, digital-marketing analysis, recommendation systems, experimental design, or data analysis, its use must be described in sufficient detail in the Methods section.

3. AI and Authorship

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, marketing data, analytical methods, and conclusions.

4. AI-Generated Images, Figures & Artwork

Generative AI must not be used to create, manipulate, obscure, remove, or introduce features in research images, advertisements, campaign materials, brand visuals, screenshots, product images, figures, charts, dashboards, or other visual evidence in a manner that misrepresents the underlying research data or market evidence.

An exception may apply when AI-assisted image generation, advertising generation, synthetic-media creation, visual analysis, image classification, or automated creative generation is part of the research design or methodology. In such cases, authors must describe the tool, model/version, procedure, inputs, validation, participant exposure where relevant, and the role of AI in generating or interpreting research data in the Methods section.

5. Use of AI by Reviewers

Submitted manuscripts are confidential documents. Reviewers must not upload manuscripts, manuscript excerpts, customer records, consumer datasets, campaign information, brand strategies, proprietary market data, 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 marketing theories, judge consumer-research validity, assess manuscript quality, or determine review recommendations. Reviewers remain personally responsible for the content, accuracy, fairness, methodological soundness, and integrity of their reports.

6. Use of AI by Editors

Editors must not upload submitted manuscripts, confidential correspondence, reviewer reports, author responses, unpublished consumer data, commercial information, campaign datasets, brand-sensitive information, 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, confidentiality management, communication, conflict-of-interest management, and final publication decisions.

7. AI in the Publication Workflow

The journal may use appropriately controlled AI-assisted technologies for limited technical and administrative purposes, with human oversight.

✓ Technical submission checks ✓ Duplicate-submission detection
✓ Research-integrity screening ✓ Reviewer matching support
✓ Copyediting and production assistance ✓ Identification of technical inconsistencies
Human oversight remains mandatory throughout all editorial and publication processes.

Violations & Consequences

Misuse or undisclosed use of AI may be handled under the journal's publication-ethics procedures. Examples include fabricated references, invented consumer responses, false survey data, undisclosed AI-generated market analysis, manipulated advertising evidence, fabricated campaign metrics, unauthorized processing of customer information, or inappropriate dependence on AI-generated consumer interpretation. Depending on severity, actions may include request for clarification, manuscript rejection, correction, retraction, institutional notification, or restrictions on future submissions.

Policy Governance

This policy follows principles of transparency, accountability, confidentiality, human oversight, fairness, intellectual-property protection, consumer privacy, data protection, responsible marketing communication, and research integrity. It will be reviewed periodically as AI technologies, marketing-research practices, digital platforms, and international publication standards evolve.