How to disclose the use of AI in a research paper

Using AI in research is not the problem. Hiding it is. More and more publishers ask authors to say how they used AI tools, and a clear statement protects you better than silence.

The principle

The author is responsible for every claim in the work, and an AI tool cannot be. A disclosure statement makes that visible. It tells the reader where a tool helped, and confirms that you checked what it produced.

What a good statement includes

• The tool: its name and version, and when you used it.
• The task: what it did. For example language editing, translation, a literature summary, code, a first draft of a section.
• The limits: what it did not do. For example, it did not produce data, results or conclusions.
• The check: that you reviewed and verified everything it produced.
• Responsibility: that you take full responsibility for the content.

Where it goes

Follow the journal's instructions first. Where there are none, put the statement in a short section of its own before the references, titled "Use of AI tools" or similar. If the tool was part of the research method itself, describe it in the methods section as well. A spell checker usually needs no statement, but mentioning it does no harm.

A template

Use of AI tools. During the preparation of this work the author used [tool, version] in [month, year] for [task, e.g. language editing of sections 2 and 3, translation of sources from Chinese, code for the statistical analysis]. The tool was not used to [produce data, results or conclusions]. The author reviewed, verified and edited all of its output and takes full responsibility for the content of this publication.

What a vague statement costs you

"AI was used in preparing this paper" tells the reader nothing and invites suspicion. A specific statement does the opposite: it shows that you know exactly where the tool was involved, and where it was not.

How OpenPlag reads it

Every OpenPlag report also checks the paper against the OpenPlag Labs standard for the ethical use of AI in academic research, including whether it carries an AI-use statement. You can see this in our sample report, which is the standard itself, checked by the service.