Artificial Intelligence (AI) Policy

Generative AI is an evolving technology. The Goethe Yearbook’s Editors and Board will monitor its development and will adjust or refine this policy when appropriate.

Authors and AI

It is not recommended that authors of articles submitted to the Goethe Yearbook use generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process. If authors nonetheless feel that it is necessary to employ these technologies, they should only be used to improve readability and language of the work. Authors should disclose in their manuscript the use of AI and AI-assisted technologies and a statement will appear in the published work. Disclosures must detail how the author employed AI, including the AI program, the prompt, and the section(s) to which it was applied. Authors should not list AI and AI-assisted technologies as an author or co-author, nor cite AI as an author. The authors are ultimately responsible and accountable for the contents of the work.

Generative AI Images

The Goethe Yearbook does not permit the use of generative AI or AI-assisted tools to create or alter images in submitted manuscripts. This may include enhancing, obscuring, moving, removing, or introducing a specific feature within an image or figure. Adjustments of brightness, contrast, or color balance are acceptable if and as long as they do not obscure or eliminate any information present in the original.

Peer Reviewers and AI

Peer reviewers may not use generative AI in writing their reviews, because their expertise is invaluable and not replaceable by this technology. Manuscripts may also include sensitive or proprietary information that should not be shared outside the peer review process. For these reasons, we ask that peer reviewers not upload manuscripts into generative AI tools.

If any part of the evaluation of the claims made in the manuscript was in any way supported by an AI tool, we ask peer reviewers to declare the use of such tools transparently in the peer review report.