CHAPTER I – GENERAL PROVISIONS

Article 1 – Background and Purpose

1. The emergence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Generative AI tools presents both opportunities and ethical challenges within the digital marketing and academic publishing landscapes.
2. While AI technologies can enhance data analysis, linguistic refinement, and literature organization, unmonitored utilization poses significant risks to academic integrity, intellectual ownership, and scientific validity.
3. This policy is established by International Journal of Educational Administration, Management, and Leadership (IJEAMaL) to define the ethical boundaries, mandatory disclosure protocols, and procedural guidelines for AI usage, ensuring full compliance with international Scopus-indexing standards and Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) principles.

Article 2 – Scope and Applicability

This policy governs all stakeholders interacting with International Journal of Educational Administration, Management, and Leadership (IJEAMaL), including:

1. Corresponding and co-authors submitting original research or review manuscripts.
2. Section Editors, Managing Editors, and the Editor-in-Chief.
3. Peer reviewers and copyeditors involved in the manuscript evaluation and production pipeline.

CHAPTER II – CORE ETHICAL PRINCIPLES

Article 3 – Guiding Principles

All activities involving AI technologies within the publication ecosystem must strictly adhere to the following core tenets:

1. Human Authorship & Accountability: AI tools cannot be credited as an author or co-author under any circumstances. Human authors bear sole scientific, ethical, and legal responsibility for the manuscript's content.
2. Mandatory Transparency: Every application of AI in research design, data generation, text synthesis, or linguistic polish must be explicitly declared upon submission.
3. Empirical Authenticity: Data, statistical models, consumer behavior insights, and analytical outputs must reflect genuine, verifiable research without automated fabrication or hallucination.
4. Editorial Autonomy: Final evaluation and publication decisions remain strictly under human editorial discretion.

CHAPTER III – AUTHOR GUIDELINES ON AI UTILIZATION

Article 4 – Permissible Applications of AI

Authors are permitted to utilize AI and assisted technologies under the following conditions:

1. Language & Text Processing: Improving English grammar, readability, tone, and stylistic clarity of human-written text.
2. Reference & Formatting Management: Organizing bibliographies and citation formatting (e.g., Mendeley, Zotero AI plugins).
3. Data Analysis Support: Assisting in code execution, computational modeling, or statistical script generation (e.g., Python, R, PLS-SEM script generation), provided the methodology is fully reproducible and disclosed.
4. Mandatory Declaration: Authors must disclose AI usage in a dedicated "AI and AI-Assisted Technologies Statement" before the References section (e.g., "During the preparation of this work, the author(s) used [Name Tool/Model] to improve English language clarity. The author(s) reviewed and edited the content as needed and take full responsibility for the final publication.").

Article 5 – Strict Prohibitions

The following practices constitute severe academic misconduct:

1. AI Authorship: Listing AI models (e.g., ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini) as authors or co-authors.
2. Generative Content Substitution: Submitting manuscripts where primary research narratives, literature syntheses, theoretical frameworks, or conclusions are autonomously generated by AI without primary human contribution.
3. Data Fabrication & Synthetic Manipulation: Using AI to generate fake survey responses, artificial consumer datasets, manipulated figures, or deepfake visuals.
4. Undisclosed AI Usage: Concealing or failing to declare the deliberate use of AI tools in manuscript development.

CHAPTER IV – EDITORIAL AND REVIEWER RESPONSIBILITIES

Article 6 – Peer Reviewers and Confidentiality

1. Peer reviewers must not upload or input submitted manuscripts (or any part thereof) into public AI tools, LLMs, or automated review software. Doing so violates confidentiality rights, copyright policies, and author data privacy.
2. Reviewers are strictly prohibited from relying on generative AI to write peer review reports. Evaluations must reflect the reviewer’s independent critical expertise.

Article 7 – Editors and Evaluation Tools

1. Editors may utilize automated similarity detection tools (e.g., Turnitin AI Detection) and technical screening systems to evaluate submission compliance.
2. AI-generated screening scores shall serve only as preliminary indicators. Final decisions regarding desk rejection, revision, or acceptance must be rendered through human editorial judgment.

CHAPTER V – VIOLATIONS, SANCTIONS, AND POLICY GOVERNANCE

Article 8 – Misconduct Handling and Sanctions

If an undisclosed or unauthorized use of AI, data fabrication, or generative ghostwriting is identified:

1. Pre-Publication: The manuscript will be immediately desk-rejected, and an official warning will be issued to the authors.
2. Post-Publication: The article will be formally retracted in accordance with PJDM Retraction Guidelines and COPE protocols, with a published notice indicating AI-related malpractice.
3. Institutional Escalation: Serious or repeated violations may result in a temporary or permanent ban of the author(s) from submitting to International Journal of Educational Administration, Management, and Leadership (IJEAMaL), accompanied by notifications to their home institutions.

Article 9 – Policy Review and Governance

This policy shall be reviewed annually by the Editorial Board of International Journal of Educational Administration, Management, and Leadership (IJEAMaL) in partnership with Harpress Indonesia (YAYASAN PINISI LENTERA ILMU) and the Faculty of Social and Law Sciences, Universitas Negeri Makassar, ensuring continuous alignment with evolving international publishing standards (Scopus, WoS, COPE).