Artificial intelligence policy among nursing journals

The rapid integration of generative artificial intelligence (AI) into scholarly work is reshaping nursing publication standards.

This study aimed to examine nursing journal policies governing the use of AI.

A cross-sectional analysis was conducted on 191 nursing journals listed in the Journal Citation Reports (JCRs) by Clarivate Analytics. Each journal's website was systematically evaluated to extract data on AI use and rationales for AI policies. Descriptive statistics were used to characterize journal attributes, publisher distribution, and patterns in AI-use policies. Thematic analysis was used for qualitative data.

Among the 191 journals, 21% were published by Elsevier, 17% Wiley, 16% Wolters Kluwer Health, 12% SAGA Publishing, 4% Springer Publishing Company, 3% Taylor & Francis. None of the journals permitted AI to be listed as an author; all allowed the use of AI tools for text generation, data analysis, and language improvement. Over half (55%) of journals did not permit AI-generated images and AI-generated charts (57%). The majority of journals (98%) explicitly prohibited the use of AI as a peer reviewer. Themes for prohibiting AI use in peer review were: peer review as a human endeavor, insufficiency for critical and contextual domain-specific judgment, lack of accountability for scientific integrity, risk of bias/error/manipulation; and risk of confidentiality and intellectual property.

There was a lack of operational guidance for AI disclosure about what to disclose, where to disclose, how detailed should be disclosed. The study findings underscore the need for operational clarity to guide ethical and responsible AI use and disclosure in nursing scholarship.