ISTIBSHAR: Journal of Islamic Education and Learning recognizes the transformative potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Large Language Models (LLMs)—including ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Copilot, and related technologies—in educational research and academic writing. To ensure scientific integrity, scholarly accountability, and ethical transparency, the journal establishes the following policy regarding the use of generative AI in submissions and editorial processes:

1. Authorship Criteria and AI (Authorship Eligibility)

• AI Does Not Qualify for Authorship: Generative AI tools and LLMs cannot be credited or listed as an author or co-author on any manuscript submitted to ISTIBSHAR.
• Ethical Rationale: In strict alignment with the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and ICMJE standards, authorship entails legal, ethical, and academic responsibility for the integrity of the published work. AI tools cannot assume legal accountability, provide manuscript approval, hold copyright, or disclose potential conflicts of interest.
• Sole Accountability of Human Authors: The human author(s) remain entirely responsible for the validity, originality, accuracy, and academic integrity of the manuscript and its contents.

2. Mandatory Transparency and Disclosure

• Authors who employ generative AI or AI-assisted technologies during research conception, data synthesis, coding, translation, or manuscript drafting must transparently declare this usage in the submission.
• Disclosure Requirement: Authors must include a dedicated section immediately preceding the References list titled "Declaration of Generative AI and AI-Assisted Technologies" (or detailed within the Methodology section). The disclosure must specify:
  1. The specific software/service used and its version (e.g., OpenAI ChatGPT-4o, Anthropic Claude 3.5 Sonnet);
  2. The exact purpose, prompt context, and scope of assistance provided by the tool;
  3. Confirmation that human authors rigorously reviewed, validated, and edited all AI-generated outputs.
• Standard linguistic editing tools (e.g., basic spelling and grammar checkers like Grammarly or citation software like Mendeley and Zotero) do not require formal declaration, provided they did not generate substantive text.

3. Data Integrity, Citation Accuracy, and AI Hallucinations

• Authors are strictly accountable for ensuring that all citations, bibliographic data, empirical observations, and arguments are authentic and verifiable.
• The submission of fabricated literature, non-existent DOIs, or spurious citations resulting from AI "hallucinations" constitutes severe scholarly misconduct and will result in immediate rejection or formal retraction.

4. Images, Figures, and Visual Representations

• The use of Generative AI to create, alter, or manipulate research imagery, charts, diagrams, or scientific evidence is strictly prohibited.
• The only permissible exception is when the submitted research specifically investigates generative AI algorithms as the direct subject of inquiry, fully described in the methodology.

5. Peer Review and Editorial Confidentiality

• Prohibition for Reviewers and Editors: Peer reviewers and editorial board members are strictly prohibited from uploading unpublished manuscripts or submission materials into publicly accessible generative AI tools.
• Manuscripts submitted to ISTIBSHAR are privileged, confidential intellectual property. Inputting manuscript drafts into external AI software breaches peer review confidentiality and compromises authorial copyright.