# Journal policy on AI-assisted imagery Publisher policy on generated and AI-assisted figures is genuinely unsettled and moves faster than any document can track. **This file deliberately names no publisher's position.** Anything asserted here would be wrong within a year, and a confidently stale policy claim is worse than none — it produces a figure the author cannot submit, or a missing declaration they did not know they owed. Check the live policy every time. The procedure below is stable; the answers are not. ## Finding the policy Search the publisher's own author guidance, not a summary of it: - ` author guidelines artificial intelligence` - ` generative AI policy figures` - ` AI-generated images editorial policy` The relevant pages are usually titled "Editorial policies", "Author responsibilities", "Artwork guidelines", or "AI use". Where a publisher has a general AI policy and a separate artwork policy, read both — text and image rules often differ, and the image rule is usually the stricter one. Also check, in this order: 1. **The journal's own page**, which can be stricter than the publisher's house policy. 2. **The publisher's house policy**, which applies where the journal is silent. 3. **The relevant umbrella recommendations** for the field. In biomedical publishing, the ICMJE Recommendations are the common reference point that many journals adopt by citation; check the current text at `icmje.org` rather than assuming its contents. ## What you are looking for Policies vary along four axes, and a policy can be permissive on one and strict on another. Record all four: | Axis | Question | |---|---| | Scope | Does the rule cover generated *artwork*, AI-*assisted* layout of author-supplied elements, or both? | | Permission | Prohibited outright, permitted with disclosure, or unaddressed? | | Disclosure location | Methods, acknowledgements, a cover letter, a submission-system field, or a figure legend? | | Detail required | Tool name only, or tool plus version plus what it was used for? | The distinction on the first axis matters most and is the one most often missed. A policy prohibiting "AI-generated images" is usually aimed at photorealistic or data-representing imagery. Whether it also covers a vector schematic drawn from author-supplied content is frequently unclear — which is exactly the case to flag to the author rather than resolve on their behalf. ## Recording the finding Report the outcome in the figure's rationale, in this shape, so the author can act on it without repeating the search: ```text Journal: Policy page: Checked: Scope: Permission: Disclosure: Action taken: ``` If the policy is unclear, say "unclear" and quote the sentence that is unclear. Do not resolve ambiguity in the permissive direction. ## Declaration template Adapt to the publisher's required wording and location. Where the publisher supplies its own form of words, use theirs instead of this. > **Declaration of AI-assisted figure preparation.** The graphical abstract in > this manuscript was prepared with AI assistance. The scientific content — the > entities depicted, the relationships between them, and the claim the figure > makes — was specified by the authors and derives from the results reported in > this manuscript. AI assistance was used for composition, layout, and the > accessibility audit of the figure. No experimental data, image, or mechanism > was generated. The authors have reviewed the final figure and take full > responsibility for its scientific accuracy. Two things to check before the author submits it: - The claim about what was generated must be **true for this figure**. If a step was drawn that the author did not specify, the second sentence is false and the declaration must be amended. - If the policy prohibits generated imagery and only the specification was delivered, no declaration is owed — the figure is the author's own work. ## When the policy prohibits generated imagery Deliver a specification, not a figure. It should contain everything needed to draw the figure and nothing that constitutes the drawing: - The claim, in one sentence - The figure type and reading path - The entity list, with the label text for each - The relationships, each marked as established or proposed - The palette, with role assignments and the audit output - Layout notes — grouping, opacity of context, panel structure An author or a designer can draw from that, and the result is unambiguously theirs.