SAJTA Submission Guidelines

Ethical Use and Disclosure of Artificial Intelligence

The South Asian Journal of Transactional Analysis (SAJTA) is committed to upholding the highest standards of academic integrity and originality. The emergence of generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools presents new opportunities and challenges for scholarly work. These guidelines establish a framework for the transparent and accountable use of AI in manuscripts submitted to SAJTA. The core principle is that authors retain full responsibility for all content in their submissions, including any portion developed with AI assistance. This principle is fundamental because AI tools lack moral agency and legal accountability. They cannot be held responsible for the accuracy, originality, or ethical integrity of the work. Only human authors can ensure the work meets scholarly standards, verify all outputs, and be held accountable to the readers and the community.

SAJTA's policy hinges on a critical distinction between prohibited "AI-Generated" content and permitted "AI-Assisted" work. SAJTA prohibits the submission of AI generated content. Submission of AI-generated content is considered academic misconduct. This ensures AI enhances, rather than replaces, the author's intellectual contribution.

Ethical AI Usage

• Author Accountability and Responsibility: The author owns every word and idea in the submission. Here are a few guidelines for the author to keep in mind:

  Pause and reflect; use AI tools mindfully

  Attend to the ethical values of respect, empowerment, commitment to the relationship, responsibility and protection. Read further about them here: https://itaaworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/12-5-14-Revised-Ethics_0.pdf

• Verify All Content: Authors must thoroughly review and fact-check any AI-generated content before submission. AI outputs can be plausible but incorrect. The Authors Guild (2025) warns that “you cannot trust the accuracy of any factual information provided by generative AI”. Every reference, data point, and factual claim in the paper must be verified against original sources. Likewise, authors must be alert to potential biases in AI output (gender, racial, or cultural biases); authors should not let AI-assisted language perpetuate stereotypes.

• Respect for Intellectual Property: Be mindful that AI models are often trained on copyrighted materials. If AI paraphrases or quotes a source, check for inadvertent copyright infringement. Any text that closely resembles a known source must be properly cited or reworked. In general, treat AI output must be treated as any literature: if it’s not the author’s original idea or phrasing, attribution must be provided.

• Enforcement and Compliance Review Process: SAJTA editors and reviewers will enforce these policies. Manuscripts may be screened with AI-detection software or plagiarism checks. If undisclosed AI use is discovered, the paper may be returned for clarification or rejected. As Hosseini et al.(2025) note, banning AI is not effective – instead SAJTA opts for regulated transparency. Authors who fail to disclose significant AI assistance risk being found in violation of publication ethics.

Ethical Disclosure and Documentation requirements:

• Manuscript Disclosure: Authors must include a statement in the cover email during manuscript submission specifying any AI assistance. This statement should mention the tool name, developer (e.g. OpenAI’s ChatGPT) version used, and the nature of its use. For example: “The authors (I) have used ChatGPT (OpenAI, GPT-4, accessed Jan 2025) to help generate an initial outline of the literature review. All AI-generated text was subsequently edited and approved by the authors.”

• Location of Disclosure: If AI was used in writing or editing the text, one place to disclose is the Acknowledgments or a footnote. If AI was used for data analysis, figure generation, or methodology, it should be detailed in the Methods section as one would describe other analytical tools. The author must take full responsibility for the accuracy of the analysis and must ensure that any interpretations made on the analysis are their own.

• Content of Disclosure: At minimum, the disclosure should state which AI tool(s) were used and for what purpose (e.g. “used to check grammar”, “used to summarize coding transcripts”).

Consequences

• Breaches of the AI policy (e.g. fraudulent presentation of AI content) can lead to rejection of the submission, and if discovered post-publication, may result in retraction or correction. Authors should treat AI disclosure like any other ethical requirement (similar to conflict-of-interest or funding disclosures).

SAJTA will review these guidelines regularly to adapt to the evolving technological landscape. Authors are expected to comply with the latest version published on the SAJTA website.

References

Ai best practices for authors. The Authors Guild. (2025, May 22). https://authorsguild.org/resource/ai-best-practices-for-authors/

Resnik, D. B., & Hosseini, M. (2025). Disclosing artificial intelligence use in scientific research and publication: When should disclosure be mandatory, optional, or unnecessary?. Accountability in research, 1-13.