Artificial Intelligence (AI) Policy

Artificial Intelligence (AI) Policy

BONAFIDE: Jurnal Teologi dan Pendidikan Kristen is committed to maintaining the highest standards of academic integrity, originality, transparency, accountability, and ethical scholarly publishing. The journal recognizes that Artificial Intelligence (AI), including Large Language Models (LLMs) and generative AI systems, can provide useful assistance in research and scholarly communication.

However, AI technologies cannot replace human authorship, scholarly judgment, critical thinking, theological reflection, methodological responsibility, or accountability for published work.

This policy applies to authors, reviewers, editors, and editorial staff of BONAFIDE and is intended to ensure the responsible and transparent use of AI in scholarly publishing.

1. General Principles

The use of AI-assisted technologies is permitted when it supports scholarly work and does not compromise academic integrity.

The following principles apply:

  1. Human authors remain fully responsible for the originality, accuracy, integrity, and ethical standards of their manuscripts.

  2. AI systems cannot be listed as authors or co-authors.

  3. AI-generated information must be critically evaluated and independently verified by the authors.

  4. AI must not be used to fabricate, falsify, manipulate, or misrepresent research.

  5. Significant use of AI in the preparation or conduct of research must be transparently disclosed.

  6. Authors, reviewers, and editors must protect confidential information and intellectual property when using AI technologies.

  7. AI must not replace the author's substantive intellectual contribution, theological reasoning, interpretation, or scholarly judgment.

These principles are consistent with international scholarly publishing guidance emphasizing transparency, human accountability, authorship responsibility, and confidentiality in the use of AI.

2. AI Use by Authors

Authors may use AI-assisted technologies for legitimate scholarly and technical purposes, including:

  • grammar, spelling, and language improvement;

  • translation and language assistance;

  • improving sentence structure and readability;

  • organizing ideas or preliminary outlines;

  • assisting with coding or technical procedures;

  • assisting with literature discovery or information retrieval; and

  • generating or assisting with tables, figures, or visualizations when their use is methodologically appropriate and transparently disclosed.

The use of AI must remain under the direct supervision and responsibility of the author.

Authors must carefully review, verify, and, where necessary, revise all AI-generated or AI-assisted content because AI systems may produce inaccurate, incomplete, biased, or fabricated information.

Authors remain responsible for ensuring that the manuscript contains no plagiarism, fabricated references, false quotations, or unverified claims resulting from the use of AI. International guidance likewise places responsibility for verification, attribution, and originality on the human author.

3. Disclosure of AI Use

Authors must disclose the use of AI-assisted technologies when the use has materially contributed to the preparation, analysis, generation, or presentation of the manuscript.

The disclosure should identify:

  • the name of the AI tool or system;

  • the version, where applicable;

  • the purpose for which the tool was used;

  • the part or stage of the research or manuscript in which it was used; and

  • the extent of human verification, review, and revision.

For example:

AI Use Disclosure: During the preparation of this manuscript, the author(s) used [AI tool and version] for [describe purpose]. The output was critically reviewed, verified, and revised by the author(s), who remain fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, interpretation, citations, and conclusions presented in this manuscript.

When AI is used as part of the research methodology—for example, for data analysis, coding, classification, image generation, or other research procedures—the use of AI should be described in sufficient detail in the Methods section to allow appropriate scholarly evaluation and, where applicable, reproducibility.

Minor use of standard spelling, grammar, or formatting tools that does not materially affect the intellectual content of the manuscript may not require a separate disclosure.

4. AI and Authorship

AI systems, including ChatGPT and other generative AI tools, cannot be listed as authors or co-authors of manuscripts submitted to BONAFIDE.

Authorship requires intellectual contribution as well as responsibility and accountability for the published work. AI systems cannot assume these responsibilities.

AI tools may be acknowledged as tools when their use requires disclosure, but they must not be presented as human contributors or scholarly authorities.

5. AI as a Source or Reference

AI-generated output must not be treated as a substitute for primary, authoritative, or peer-reviewed scholarly sources.

Authors must verify all references, quotations, biblical texts, historical claims, theological statements, and other factual information independently.

AI-generated references or citations that cannot be verified through authentic scholarly sources are unacceptable.

Authors should cite the original scholarly source rather than citing an AI system as the authority for a claim.

AI-generated content must not be used to create fictitious references, quotations, page numbers, or bibliographic information.

6. Prohibited Uses of AI

BONAFIDE prohibits the use of AI in ways that constitute or facilitate academic misconduct.

Authors must not use AI to:

  • fabricate or falsify research data;

  • manipulate research findings or statistical results;

  • create fictitious research participants, interviews, observations, or field data;

  • fabricate quotations or references;

  • generate false historical, theological, biblical, or educational evidence;

  • misrepresent AI-generated material as original empirical findings;

  • create fictitious sources, page numbers, or bibliographic information;

  • conceal substantive AI-generated contributions when disclosure is required;

  • reproduce copyrighted or third-party material without appropriate attribution or permission;

  • generate research conclusions that the author has not independently examined or supported;

  • replace meaningful human interpretation in qualitative research;

  • misrepresent AI-generated images, figures, or visualizations as authentic research evidence; or

  • use AI in any manner that compromises research participants, confidentiality, intellectual property, or academic integrity.

Any AI-assisted output used in a manuscript remains subject to the same standards of verification, attribution, and academic integrity as material produced directly by the author.

7. AI Use by Reviewers

Peer reviewers must protect the confidentiality of manuscripts and all information contained within them.

Reviewers must not upload, paste, or otherwise submit manuscripts, excerpts, unpublished data, reviewer reports, or confidential editorial correspondence to generative AI systems when confidentiality cannot be guaranteed.

Reviewers must not use AI to generate or substantially compose their peer-review reports or scholarly evaluation.

If BONAFIDE explicitly permits limited AI assistance for a particular aspect of the review process, the reviewer must obtain permission from the journal and disclose such use to the editor.

Reviewers remain personally responsible for the accuracy, fairness, confidentiality, and scholarly judgment expressed in their review.

These requirements reflect international guidance that treats submitted manuscripts as confidential communications and warns against uploading confidential manuscripts to AI systems without appropriate safeguards or permission.

8. AI Use by Editors and Editorial Staff

Editors and editorial staff must maintain the confidentiality, integrity, and independence of the editorial process.

Editors must not:

  • use AI as a substitute for editorial judgment;

  • upload confidential manuscripts into AI systems where confidentiality cannot be assured;

  • use AI to make final decisions concerning acceptance, revision, or rejection;

  • disclose confidential manuscript content through AI systems; or

  • allow AI-generated recommendations to replace independent scholarly assessment.

AI tools may be used for limited administrative or technical purposes where appropriate, provided that confidentiality and data protection are maintained.

The final editorial decision must always be based on human editorial judgment and the journal's stated editorial and peer-review criteria.

9. AI, Confidentiality, and Intellectual Property

Manuscripts submitted to BONAFIDE are confidential scholarly communications.

Authors, reviewers, editors, and editorial staff must exercise caution when using external AI services because submitted manuscripts may contain unpublished research, intellectual property, personal information, or other confidential material.

No confidential manuscript or peer-review material may be submitted to an AI system unless the confidentiality, privacy, and intellectual-property protections of that system are appropriate and the journal's policy permits such use.

The responsibility to protect confidential information applies throughout the entire editorial and peer-review process.

10. AI-Generated Images, Figures, and Other Visual Materials

AI-generated or AI-assisted images, figures, diagrams, and visualizations may be used only when their use is scientifically and ethically appropriate.

Authors must:

  • disclose significant AI involvement in creating the visual material;

  • ensure that the material does not misrepresent research evidence;

  • verify the accuracy of any information represented;

  • provide appropriate attribution where required; and

  • comply with applicable copyright and intellectual-property requirements.

AI-generated images must not be presented as authentic photographs, research observations, archival materials, or empirical evidence when they are not.

11. AI Detection and Editorial Assessment

BONAFIDE may use technological tools, including AI-detection or similarity-detection systems, as supporting instruments in the editorial assessment of manuscripts.

However, AI-detection results shall not, by themselves, constitute conclusive evidence of academic misconduct.

Editorial decisions concerning suspected undisclosed AI use or academic misconduct must be based on human evaluation, documentary evidence, the author's explanation, and the journal's publication ethics procedures.

12. Academic and Theological Responsibility

BONAFIDE recognizes that scholarship in theology and Christian education involves forms of intellectual and interpretive work that require human judgment and responsibility.

Biblical interpretation, theological reasoning, doctrinal analysis, contextual theological reflection, ethical judgment, educational interpretation, and engagement with human experience must remain the responsibility of the author.

AI may assist scholarly work, but it cannot replace:

  • theological discernment;

  • critical interpretation of Scripture and tradition;

  • contextual analysis;

  • methodological judgment;

  • ethical reasoning;

  • engagement with human experience; or

  • the author's original scholarly contribution.

Authors therefore remain fully accountable for the theological, educational, methodological, and ethical claims made in their manuscripts.

13. Non-Disclosure and Misuse of AI

Failure to disclose significant AI use, fabrication or falsification through AI, submission of fabricated references or quotations, misuse of confidential material, or other forms of AI-assisted academic misconduct may constitute a violation of BONAFIDE's publication ethics.

Depending on the circumstances and severity of the violation, the journal may:

  • request clarification or additional information;

  • require correction or revision;

  • reject the manuscript;

  • suspend or terminate the review process;

  • issue a correction or retraction after publication; or

  • take other appropriate action in accordance with the journal's publication ethics and applicable standards of research integrity.

Undisclosed AI use is not automatically considered misconduct; however, deliberate concealment of substantive AI use, particularly when it affects the originality, integrity, or reliability of the research, may constitute an ethical violation.

14. Responsibility of Authors

By submitting a manuscript to BONAFIDE, authors affirm that:

  1. the manuscript represents their own scholarly work;

  2. any significant use of AI has been appropriately disclosed;

  3. all AI-assisted content has been critically reviewed and verified;

  4. all references and quotations are authentic and accurately represented;

  5. no fabricated data, references, quotations, or claims have been introduced through AI;

  6. AI has not been listed as an author or co-author; and

  7. the authors accept full responsibility for the accuracy, originality, integrity, and ethical standards of the submitted manuscript.

Statement of Principle

BONAFIDE: Jurnal Teologi dan Pendidikan Kristen recognizes Artificial Intelligence as a potentially useful scholarly tool, but not as a substitute for human scholarship.

Human responsibility, academic integrity, theological discernment, and scholarly accountability remain fundamental to every publication in BONAFIDE.

Responsible Use of AI. Responsible Scholarship. Theological Integrity.