Policy on the Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Educação Matemática em Revista – Rio Grande do Sul (EMR-RS)

Educação Matemática em Revista – Rio Grande do Sul (EMR-RS) recognizes that Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools, especially generative AI tools, have increasingly been incorporated into academic research, writing, translation, revision, and text organization practices. It also recognizes that such use requires clear criteria of transparency, responsibility, academic integrity, and human oversight in order to preserve intellectual authorship, the originality of submissions, and the reliability of published scientific knowledge. Accordingly, the journal establishes guidelines for the use of AI by authors, reviewers, and editors within its editorial processes.

General principles

The use of AI tools in the context of EMR-RS must observe the following principles:

a) transparency, with clear information about the use made, whenever relevant;
b) full human responsibility, with authors, reviewers, and editors always bearing final responsibility for decisions, content, and evaluations;
c) academic and scientific integrity, preserving originality, intellectual authorship, methodological validity, and the reliability of results;
d) human oversight, prohibiting the replacement of academic, scientific, or editorial judgment by automated systems;
e) data protection, confidentiality, and respect for copyright, especially when unpublished manuscripts, research data, images, documents, or sensitive information are involved.

Guidelines for authors

2.1. Permitted use as auxiliary support

EMR-RS allows the use of AI tools as auxiliary support in activities such as:

  • grammatical, orthographic, stylistic, and clarity revision;
  • translation and linguistic support;
  • support in preparing outlines and explanatory visual elements;
  • technical support in methodological stages, when compatible with the nature of the research and duly described in the manuscript, if necessary.

In all cases, such use must remain subordinate to human intellectual direction and may not replace the textual writing of manuscripts, scientific and analytical interpretation, authorial argumentation, or the critical validation of results.

2.2. Obligation to disclose use

Authors must disclose, at the time of submission, the use of AI tools in the preparation of the manuscript.

Whenever possible, the disclosure must indicate:

  • the tool used;
  • the purpose of its use;
  • the stage at which it was employed;
  • and the extent of its use.

Failure to provide this information may lead to requests for clarification, additional editorial review, or other appropriate measures.

2.3. Authors’ responsibility

Even if AI has been used at some stage in the preparation of the manuscript, authors remain fully responsible for:

  • the originality of the manuscript;
  • the conceptual and factual accuracy of the text;
  • the correctness of citations and references;
  • the integrity of data and results;
  • the legitimacy of interpretations and conclusions;
  • the ethical and legal compliance of the submitted content.

Prohibited uses for authors

The use of AI is not permitted for:

a) inventing, fabricating, altering, or simulating data, results, evidence, documents, testimonies, citations, or references;
b) producing content presented as one’s own empirical, analytical, or interpretative result without proper review and assumption of responsibility;
c) concealing the automated origin of content whose disclosure is relevant to editorial evaluation;
d) inserting into the manuscript content known to be inaccurate, unverified, or lacking minimum source traceability;
e) violating copyright, privacy, confidentiality, participants’ anonymity, or the confidentiality of research materials.

Data, images, graphs, and visual elements

EMR-RS distinguishes between explanatory visual elements and representations of research data.

4.1. Explanatory visual elements

Graphs, diagrams, illustrations, or other visual resources produced with AI support may be accepted when they serve a merely explanatory, didactic, or schematic function, provided that they:

  • do not represent fabricated empirical data;
  • do not lead the reader to interpret as research evidence what is merely an illustrative resource;
  • are compatible with the principles of transparency and authorial responsibility.

4.2. Data and results

The use of AI to generate, simulate, complete, manipulate, or unduly embellish research data, empirical results, documentary records, or analytical evidence in a way that compromises their authenticity, traceability, or scientific fidelity is not permitted.

When graphs, tables, figures, or visualizations represent data from the study, authors must ensure that such data are real, verifiable, and consistent with the described method.

Ethics, copyright, and data protection

Authors must observe that the use of AI does not exempt them from complying with research ethics standards, citation rules, the protection of personal and institutional data, or respect for copyright and permissions for the use of third-party materials.

Whenever the research involves participants, sensitive data, images, audio, school documents, student work, interviews, or any material protected by confidentiality, authors must ensure that the use of AI tools does not compromise the confidentiality, privacy, or ethical integrity of the research process.

Guidelines for reviewers

EMR-RS reviewers must preserve the full confidentiality of manuscripts received for evaluation.

Accordingly, they must not enter, share, or submit manuscripts, unpublished excerpts, data, images, tables, supplementary documents, or review reports into public or unauthorized AI tools, especially when this may imply:

  • exposure of unpublished content;
  • violation of editorial confidentiality;
  • improper handling of data;
  • uncontrolled transfer of information to external platforms.

Occasional use of AI by reviewers, when admitted in strictly accessory activities and without the insertion of confidential content, does not replace critical reading, specialized judgment, methodological analysis, or responsibility for the issued review.

Guidelines for editors and editorial staff

The EMR-RS editorial team may use AI tools in auxiliary administrative, organizational, linguistic, or operational tasks, provided that such use:

  • does not replace human editorial judgment;
  • does not automate editorial decisions of acceptance, rejection, or revision requests;
  • does not compromise manuscript confidentiality;
  • respects the protection of personal and institutional data;
  • is compatible with the principles of integrity, transparency, and human oversight.

Editorial decisions of the journal are always the responsibility of human beings.

Additional clarifications and editorial measures

EMR-RS may, at any point in the editorial workflow:

  • request clarification regarding the use of AI;
  • require adjustments in the manuscript or in the submission statement;
  • request details regarding data, images, references, or methodological stages;
  • adopt appropriate editorial measures if it identifies uses incompatible with this policy, scientific integrity, or the journal’s rules.

Policy updates

Considering the dynamic nature of AI technologies and their impacts on research and academic publishing, this policy may be reviewed and updated periodically by the EMR-RS editorial team. Such review will seek to preserve consistency with the principles of academic integrity, institutional responsibility, data protection, and scientific quality.