Scientific Integrity and Artificial Intelligence Use Policy

Intercom recognizes that Artificial Intelligence tools do not meet the fundamental requirements for authorship of a scientific article. Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) tools and Large Language Models (LLMs) may not be listed as authors or co-authors of any work published by the journal.

This policy complies with CNPq Ordinance No. 2,664/2026, which established the Policy on Integrity in Scientific Activity within the scope of research funded or supported by CNPq, and also follows the recommendations of the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME) on ethical considerations in the use of these technologies in scientific manuscripts.

Duties of Authors

• Transparency: report the use of AI tools and/or assistive technologies at every stage of the research where they were employed — conception, writing, data analysis, and submission — not just in the final drafting of the text.

• Attribution: state the name of the tool and/or service used and the reason for its use.

• Responsibility: authors are fully responsible for the accuracy, integrity, and originality of content generated with AI assistance. Undeclared use, identified during similarity analysis, results in automatic disqualification of the manuscript from publication.

• Limitations: any limitations and potential biases of AI tool use must be discussed in the manuscript.

Accepted Uses

• Language assistance: when AI is used to paraphrase or improve the author's original content — similar to spell checkers and thesauruses — and not to generate new content. Texts fully translated by AI without human review are not accepted.

• Literature search: generative text models may assist in identifying relevant literature, while the usual requirements for citation accuracy and careful literature review remain in effect; attention to possible bias in the tool's suggestions is recommended.

• Text of low conceptual originality: when AI is used to describe widely known concepts, the manuscript must indicate this use and ensure that the generated content is accurate and accompanied by appropriate citations.

In all cases of AI use in writing, in producing images or graphic elements, or in compiling and analyzing data, the manuscript must detail, in the Materials and Methods section, how and which tool was used. AI use may under no circumstances violate the journal's plagiarism policy.

At the time of submission, authors must include the "Declaration of Use of Artificial Intelligence and/or Language Models," specifying the tool, version, and purpose of use.

Duties of Reviewers

Reviewers must not use Generative Artificial Intelligence tools to draft, summarize, or assist in preparing their reviews, nor insert, copy, or share, in whole or in part, the content of the manuscript under review in any generative AI tool. Doing so constitutes a violation of the confidentiality duty of peer review and of the copyright protections of the blind review process.