1. Purpose and Scope

Child Education Journal recognizes the growing application of generative artificial intelligence in educational research and scholarly communication. These technologies may support research and manuscript development but must not replace human intellectual contribution, independent scholarly judgment, critical analysis, or ethical responsibility.

This policy applies to AI systems capable of generating or transforming text, images, data, software code, audio, and other research-related content. All use must comply with research ethics, copyright, confidentiality, data protection requirements, and scholarly publishing standards.

2. General Principles

Responsible use of generative artificial intelligence must observe the following principles:

• Human accountability: Human authors and editors remain responsible for scholarly content and editorial decisions.
• Transparency: Substantive use of generative artificial intelligence must be disclosed.
• Research integrity: All AI-assisted information, findings, and references must be independently verified.
• Confidentiality: Personal information, unpublished manuscripts, and protected research data must be safeguarded.
• Scholarly independence: Generative artificial intelligence must not replace original reasoning, interpretation, or scientific judgment.

3. Generative AI Use by Authors

3.1 Permitted Use

Authors may use generative artificial intelligence and AI-assisted technologies for legitimate research and manuscript preparation activities under appropriate human oversight.

• Improving language clarity, grammar, readability, and academic writing quality.
• Supporting manuscript organization, structure, and outlining.
• Assisting with preliminary brainstorming and idea development.
• Supporting literature organization and summarization, provided that all references and claims are independently verified.
• Supporting coding, statistical analysis, or data processing where procedures and outputs are appropriately validated and disclosed.

3.2 Author Responsibilities

Authors must critically review, verify, and revise all substantive AI-assisted content. Authors retain full responsibility for the originality, accuracy, reliability, ethical compliance, and scientific integrity of their manuscripts.

Authors must ensure that AI-assisted content does not introduce fabricated references, incorrect information, methodological errors, unsupported claims, plagiarism, or copyright violations.

4. Mandatory Generative AI Disclosure

4.1 Disclosure Requirements

Child Education Journal requires authors to disclose substantive use of generative artificial intelligence or AI-assisted technologies during research or manuscript preparation.

The declaration must identify:

1. The name of the AI tool or service.
2. The tool version or model, when available.
3. The specific purpose of its use.
4. The manuscript or research activities supported by the tool.
5. The extent of human review, verification, and revision.

The disclosure must appear in a separate section entitled Declaration of Generative AI Use before the References section. Substantive AI use in research design, data collection, coding, analysis, or methodology must also be described in the Methods section with sufficient detail for scholarly evaluation.

Routine spelling, grammar, or punctuation checks that do not substantively generate or transform scholarly content do not require formal disclosure.

4.2 Declaration When Generative AI Was Used

Authors must adapt the following statement to accurately describe their actual use.

4.3 Declaration When Generative AI Was Not Used

Authors who did not substantively use generative artificial intelligence may include the following statement.

4.4 Declaration Accuracy

Declarations must accurately reflect the research and manuscript preparation process. Authors must not conceal or misrepresent substantive AI involvement. The editorial team may request clarification or supporting information where necessary.

5. Authorship and Accountability

Generative artificial intelligence systems, large language models, chatbots, and automated content generation technologies cannot be listed as authors or co-authors.

Authorship is restricted to human contributors who satisfy the authorship criteria of Child Education Journal, approve the final manuscript, and accept responsibility for the originality, integrity, and accuracy of the published work.

6. Prohibited Uses of Generative AI

Generative artificial intelligence must not be used to:

• Fabricate research participants, observations, datasets, findings, or research results.
• Create fictitious references, quotations, citations, or other scientific evidence.
• Present unverified AI-generated content as authentic empirical evidence.
• Conceal plagiarism or misrepresent the originality of scholarly work.
• Manipulate research evidence or distort scientific conclusions.
• Upload confidential materials without appropriate authorization.
• Incorporate materials that unlawfully infringe copyright or intellectual property rights.

7. AI-Generated Figures, Images, and Artwork

The creation or substantive manipulation of scientific figures, photographs, illustrations, or graphical abstracts through generative artificial intelligence is not permitted for ordinary manuscript presentation purposes. Generating fabricated visual evidence or materially altering authentic research images is prohibited.

Minor technical adjustments, including brightness or contrast corrections, may be acceptable when they do not distort the original research evidence.

Exceptions may be considered where AI-based image generation, processing, or analysis constitutes an integral component of the research methodology. Authors must disclose the tool, version, procedures, validation methods, and methodological limitations. AI-generated graphical abstract artwork is not permitted, while AI-generated cover artwork may be considered only with prior editorial approval and appropriate rights clearance.

8. Protection of Children and Research Participants

Child Education Journal places particular emphasis on protecting the privacy, confidentiality, dignity, and welfare of children, students, families, teachers, and other research participants.

Authors must not upload identifiable personal information, confidential educational records, interview transcripts, photographs, or sensitive research materials to external generative artificial intelligence systems without appropriate authorization and adequate safeguards.

Research involving children must comply with applicable ethical approval requirements, informed consent procedures, data protection obligations, and institutional research ethics standards.

9. Generative AI Use by Reviewers

Reviewers must protect the confidentiality of all submitted manuscripts, supporting documents, peer review reports, and editorial correspondence.

Reviewers must not upload unpublished manuscripts or confidential review materials into external generative artificial intelligence systems. Scientific evaluation must be performed using independent human expertise, professional judgment, and disciplinary knowledge.

Reviewers must not delegate the assessment of originality, methodology, scholarly quality, or scientific contribution to generative artificial intelligence systems.

10. Generative AI Use by Editors

Editors must maintain confidentiality, impartiality, research integrity, and accountability throughout the editorial process.

Editorial decisions concerning manuscript acceptance, revision, or rejection must remain the responsibility of authorized human editors and must not be delegated to generative artificial intelligence.

Any authorized AI-assisted administrative activity must comply with publication ethics, confidentiality, and data protection requirements.

11. AI-Assisted Publication Process

Child Education Journal may employ authorized AI-assisted technologies under appropriate human oversight to support administrative, technical, and publication quality assurance activities.

• Technical manuscript checks and formatting verification.
• Preliminary scope alignment screening.
• Supporting identification of appropriate reviewer expertise.
• Originality and research integrity screening.
• Language editing, proofreading, and production consistency checks.

AI-assisted technologies must not replace human editorial responsibility or final publication decisions.

12. Copyright, Open Access, and Licensing

Child Education Journal is an open-access scholarly journal published by Universitas Nahdlatul Ulama Surabaya, Indonesia. Authors retain copyright in their published works and grant the journal the right of first publication.

Published articles are distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0), as specified in the journal's current publication licensing policy.

This license permits sharing, reproduction, distribution, and adaptation, including commercial reuse, provided that appropriate attribution is given, changes are indicated, and adaptations are distributed under the same or a compatible license.

Authors must ensure that AI-assisted materials comply with applicable copyright laws, intellectual property rights, and the journal's licensing conditions.

License information: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International.

13. Non-Compliance and Editorial Action

Failure to comply with this policy may result in editorial investigation under the publication ethics procedures of Child Education Journal.

Potential violations include undisclosed substantive AI use, fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, copyright infringement, misleading authorship claims, and unauthorized disclosure of confidential information.

The editorial team may request clarification, supporting evidence, manuscript correction, or other appropriate measures. For published articles, substantiated concerns may be addressed through corrections, expressions of concern, or retractions where warranted.

14. Policy Review and Updates

Child Education Journal may periodically review and revise this policy to reflect developments in generative artificial intelligence, scholarly publishing standards, research ethics, and applicable legal requirements.

Authors, reviewers, editors, and contributors are expected to consult the current policy before participating in the journal's editorial activities.

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