AI Policy for Reviewers
The Journal of Clinical Pharmacy in Community Practice (JCPCP) is committed to maintaining the highest standards of ethical peer review, confidentiality, and academic integrity. Reviewers play a vital role in ensuring the scientific quality, validity, and credibility of published research. The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) or AI-assisted tools during the peer review process must strictly comply with the guidelines outlined below.
1. Confidentiality and Data Protection
All manuscripts submitted for peer review are strictly confidential documents. Reviewers must not upload, copy, paste, share, or input any part of a manuscript—including text, figures, tables, or supplementary materials—into any AI system, external platform, or third-party tool.
This restriction is essential to protect author confidentiality, intellectual property rights, and unpublished research data. The same confidentiality applies to review reports and editorial communications.
2. Use of AI in Scientific Evaluation
Peer review is a scholarly responsibility that requires independent academic judgment, subject expertise, and critical evaluation. AI tools must not be used to analyze, interpret, summarize, or evaluate submitted manuscripts.
Reviewers are fully responsible for ensuring that their assessments are original, evidence-based, and derived from their own academic expertise and critical thinking.
3. Language and Report Writing Assistance
AI tools may be used only for improving the grammar, clarity, or language quality of review reports. However, no confidential manuscript content may be entered into any AI system at any stage.
Reviewers must ensure that confidentiality, integrity, and ethical standards are fully maintained throughout the review process.
4. AI in Editorial and Internal Operations
JCPCP may use AI-assisted technologies internally to support editorial operations such as plagiarism detection, manuscript screening, and reviewer assignment. These systems operate under strict confidentiality and data protection protocols.
However, AI tools do not replace human editorial judgment or peer review decisions. All final editorial decisions are made exclusively by the Editor-in-Chief or assigned handling editors.
5. Reviewer Accountability
Reviewers are fully responsible for the accuracy, integrity, and professionalism of their review reports and recommendations.
Any misuse of AI tools that violates confidentiality, ethical standards, or the integrity of the peer review process may result in:
- Removal from the reviewer database
- Restriction from future reviewing activities
- Notification to the editorial board or affiliated institutions
- Other corrective actions as deemed necessary
6. Commitment to Ethical Peer Review
JCPCP is dedicated to maintaining a transparent, fair, and ethical peer review system. The journal strongly emphasizes human expertise, accountability, and confidentiality in all review activities to ensure the highest standards of scholarly publishing.
Journal of Clinical Pharmacy in Community Practice (JCPCP)
