1. Confidentiality & Data Privacy

• All manuscripts under review are strictly confidential.
• No content (text, datasets, tables, figures, or supplementary materials) may be uploaded to AI tools that:
  • Process data on external servers
  • Store user inputs
  • Risk exposure of unpublished research
• Permitted tools must comply with robust data privacy standards (e.g., GDPR, COPPA, end-to-end encryption).

2. Permitted Uses of AI

• Reviewers: May use AI to refine grammar, clarity, or tone of review reports (not manuscript content).
• Editors: May use AI to draft editorial correspondence or decision templates, provided that:
  • Final decisions are based on human judgment and reviewer recommendations.
  • All AI outputs are carefully reviewed and verified by humans.

3. Prohibited Uses of AI

• Analyzing, interpreting, or summarizing manuscript content.
• Generating reviewer comments, editorial decisions, or accept/reject recommendations.
• Assessing originality or plagiarism (restricted to licensed tools such as Turnitin or iThenticate).
• Compromising confidentiality by inputting sensitive agronomic or experimental data into public AI tools.

4. Accountability

• Human oversight is mandatory for all editorial and review decisions.
• Disclosure is required if AI-assisted edits are used in reports or correspondence.
• Violations may result in revocation of review privileges or manuscript rejection.

Rationale for TJAS

Agricultural sciences involve proprietary methodologies, field data, and sensitive agrotechnical insights. TJAS prioritizes preventing data leakage, maintaining expert human evaluation of context-specific research, and upholding ethical standards aligned with COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics).