Artificial Intelligence (AI) Usage Policy
In accordance with guidelines from the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME), Tourist Destination has established the following rules regarding the use of generative AI tools and AI-assisted technologies in academic writing and peer review:
1. DIRECTIVES FOR AUTHORS
- No Authorship for AI: Generative AI tools (e.g., ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Copilot) cannot be credited as authors or co-authors. AI tools cannot take legal responsibility for the work, hold copyrights, or sign conflict of interest declarations.
- Synthetic Data vs. Data Fabrication: A strict and explicit distinction is maintained between legitimate synthetic/simulated data generation and fraudulent data fabrication:
- Legitimate Synthetic Data: The use of generative AI or algorithmic methods to generate synthetic datasets, simulate agent behaviors, or model scenarios as a formal research methodology is permissible. In such cases, authors must fully and transparently describe the methodology, models, prompts, parameters, and validation procedures in the Methodology section.
- Prohibition of Data Fabrication: Generating, manipulating, or fabricating empirical research data, survey responses, participant feedback, or laboratory/field observations using AI tools is strictly prohibited and constitutes grave scientific misconduct.
- AI Disclosure & Two-Stage Reporting Model: If authors use generative AI tools for writing assistance, language editing, literature synthesis, code generation, legitimate data modeling, or graphic creation, this must be declared transparently following our two-stage double-blind protocol:
- Initial Submission: Full AI usage details (tool name, version, provider, and specific scope of use) must be declared in the online submission system / separate Title Page. In the blinded manuscript, only anonymized methodological explanations essential for evaluating the research design should be described, ensuring no user accounts or identifying information are revealed.
- Post-Acceptance: The comprehensive AI declaration statement must be incorporated into the final accepted manuscript under a dedicated 'Artificial Intelligence Disclosure' section before publication.
- Author Responsibility: Authors remain solely responsible for the entire content and integrity of their manuscript. They must ensure that all AI-assisted sections are free from plagiarism, inaccuracies, fabricated references, or hallucinated facts.
2. STIPULATIONS FOR REVIEWERS
- Confidentiality Breaches: Peer review is a strictly confidential process. Reviewers must not upload submitted manuscripts, abstracts, figures, or data to generative AI engines or external cloud tools. Doing so constitutes a direct violation of author copyright, intellectual property rights, and confidentiality obligations.
3. GUIDELINES FOR EDITORS
- Editorial assessments and decision-making must rely on human expertise and scholarly judgment. Editors must not use AI tools to automatically evaluate, summarize, accept, or reject manuscripts without direct human oversight.
