AI statement

Marketing & Management – Guidelines on the Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

While maintaining scientific integrity, the Journal supports the responsible use of AI based on the following principles.

I. Recommendations for Authors

For manuscripts submitted to the Journal, authors bear full responsibility for the originality, accuracy, references, and scientific integrity of their submitted works. In line with international publication standards, AI-based or AI-assisted tools may not be named as authors and cannot assume authorial responsibility.

1. Transparency and Disclosure Obligation

Authors are required to transparently indicate the use of AI tools or AI-based technologies if these substantially contributed to the preparation of the manuscript, especially during the research process or the production of the manuscript’s content.

Disclosure is especially required for the use of AI for: text generation; literature review summarization; translation or paraphrasing; formulating research questions or hypotheses; developing theoretical frameworks;
data collection; data cleaning; coding; data analysis; programming;
production or modification of tables, figures, images, or other content elements.

If the use of AI formed part of the research methodology, the methodological chapter must clearly describe its details: the name of the tool(s), provider or version (if known), the purpose and manner of use, the scope of the data or manuscript sections affected, and the method of authorial verification of the results.

2. Generative AI vs. Research Methodology Software

These guidelines specifically apply to generative AI tools. They do not prohibit the use of verifiable, documented, and methodologically justified statistical, data analysis, or computational research tools, provided their application is appropriately described in the manuscript.

3. Prohibited and Unacceptable Use of AI

AI tools may not be used for the uncontrolled production, modification, supplementation, fabrication, distortion, or falsification of data, statistical results, references, citations, empirical evidence, or research conclusions.

It is not acceptable for authors to delegate substantive research tasks of data analysis, statistical computations, interpretation of results, or formulation of conclusions to generative AI.
Manuscripts whose scientific claims, analyses, or conclusions were produced predominantly by AI tools without substantial human oversight and authorial contribution are not acceptable.

The software, packages, codes, algorithms, or AI-based methods used for statistical analyses must be described in such a way that the analysis can be verified and, if possible, reproduced. Authors are responsible for the independent verification of the accuracy of the calculations, codes, models, and results applied.

4. Linguistic/Stilistic Support

The use of tools that serve exclusively for linguistic, stylistic, spelling, or formatting corrections and do not make substantive contributions to content, analysis, argumentation, results, or conclusions generally does not need to be indicated. However, their disclosure is recommended for transparency.

Even in such cases, authors must ensure that corrections have not altered the scientific content of the manuscript.

5. Data Protection, Confidentiality, Copyright

Authors may not upload confidential, personal, copyrighted, business-secret, or research-ethically protected data to publicly available or external AI systems, except where they have an appropriate legal basis, permission, and data protection guarantees.

6. Verification of References and AI-Generated Content

The critical verification of content generated or supported by AI tools is the exclusive responsibility of the authors, with particular attention to accuracy, bias, originality, and correctness of references.

A citation recommended or generated by an AI tool may only be included if authors have verified its existence, bibliographic data, content relevance, and citation accuracy from primary sources.

7. Mandatory AI Statement at the End of the Manuscript

An AI usage statement must be placed at the end of the manuscript—after the references. If missing, the manuscript will be returned for completion, and the review process will not begin until deficiencies are remedied.

In the case of repeated, incomplete, or misleading statements, the Journal may decide to reject the manuscript. For already accepted or published studies, the editorial office reserves the right to withdraw acceptance, publish a correction, or in serious cases, retract the publication; each case will be assessed individually.

Statement templates:

1) If substantive AI use occurred:

“The author(s) used [AI tool name, version/provider] during the preparation of the manuscript for the purpose, nature, and extent of [specify usage]. The AI tool was not used for the uncontrolled production of data, statistical results, references, or research conclusions. The author(s) have verified, modified as necessary, and assume full responsibility for all AI-supported or -generated content, code, analyses, and references in the study.”

2) If no substantive AI use occurred:

“The author(s) hereby state that, in preparing the manuscript, they did not use any AI tools that contributed substantively to the creation of content, analysis, argumentation, results, or conclusions.”

II. Recommendations for Reviewers and Editors

The Journal’s referees and editors are required to ensure the integrity, confidentiality, and independence of the scientific evaluation process during the review and handling of manuscripts.

1. Confidentiality and Data Protection

Submitted manuscripts are considered confidential documents; their content may not be shared with third parties, including publicly available or external AI-based tools. Accordingly, referees and editors may not upload the full or partial text of manuscripts into such systems.

Peer reviews, editorial decisions, preparatory materials, and editorial communications regarding the manuscript are also considered confidential documents. Their entire or partial text may not be uploaded into publicly available or external AI-based tools if confidentiality, data protection, and copyright are not ensured.

2. Permitted, Limited Use

AI tools may only be used to technically support peer review or editorial work in ways that do not involve uploading manuscripts, reviews, editorial decisions, or confidential author-related information into external systems.

Example: Linguistic or stylistic correction/review of one’s own statements (not containing confidential information).
The use of AI may not replace professional evaluation or influence independent scientific judgment.

3. Prohibited Use

Publicly available or external generative AI tools may not be used for the analysis, summarization, evaluation of manuscripts, or as a substantive basis for peer review/editorial decisions.

4. Responsibility and Disclosure

Referees and editors are fully responsible for the content of reviews and decisions they prepare; any findings generated or supported by AI must be critically checked in all cases. AI tools may not replace the professional competence, critical thinking, and independent scientific responsibility of the reviewer or editor.

If AI tools made a substantive contribution to the preparation of a review or editorial decision, this must be reported to the editorial office. The report must include the name of the tool used, the purpose of use, and which part of the review or decision was supported. Such notification does not exempt from full responsibility.

5. Consequences of Inappropriate AI Use

The Journal reserves the right to disregard reviews in cases of confidentiality breaches or inappropriate AI use, to request a new review, or to handle the matter within the framework of publication ethics procedures.