The use of generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in writing for Elsevier

Policy for book and commissioned content authors

This policy aims to provide greater transparency and guidance to authors, readers, reviewers, editors, and contributors in relation to generative AI and AI-assisted technologies. Elsevier will continue to monitor developments in this area and will adjust or refine policies as appropriate. The following guidance is specifically for authors of books and commissioned content.

Elsevier recognizes the potential of generative AI and AI-assisted technologies (“AI Tools”), when used responsibly, to help authors work efficiently, gain critical research, educational, or clinical insights, and achieve better outcomes. Increasingly, these tools, including AI agents and deep research tools, are helping authors to synthesize complex literature, provide an overview of a field, review evidence-based clinical care, identify research gaps, and provide tailored support for tasks such as content organization and improving language and readability. Authors preparing a manuscript for Elsevier can use AI Tools to support them.

These tools must never be used as a substitute for human critical thinking, expertise and evaluation. AI Tools should always be applied with human oversight and control. Ultimately, authors are responsible and accountable for the contents of their work. This includes accountability for:

• Carefully reviewing the terms and conditions of any AI Tool to ensure that:

  • their use of the AI Tool maintains the privacy and confidentiality of their data and inputs to the AI Tool, including unpublished and published manuscripts, and any personally identifiable information.

  • they only grant limited rights to the AI Tool to provide a service to them.

  • the terms and conditions do not restrict the subsequent publication or dissemination of their work.

• Ensuring that no content is uploaded to any AI Tool which might infringe the author’s or Elsevier’s intellectual property (for example, content from a previous edition that is being revised).

• Carefully reviewing and verifying the accuracy, comprehensiveness, and impartiality of all AI-generated output (including checking the sources, as AI-generated references can be incorrect or fabricated).

• Editing and adapting all material thoroughly to ensure the manuscript represents the author’s authentic and original contribution and reflects their own analysis, interpretation, insights and ideas.

• Ensuring the use of any tools or sources, AI-based or otherwise, is made clear and transparent to readers — for the use of AI Tools we require a disclosure statement upon submission.

Responsible use of AI and AI-assisted Tools

Authors must check the terms and conditions of any AI Tool that they use to ensure that the privacy and confidentiality of their data and inputs, including their unpublished and published manuscripts, is maintained. Particular care should be taken with any personally identifiable data. Images that duplicate or refer to existing copyrighted images, real people, or others’ identifiable products or brands must not be generated, nor any likeness of an individual’s voice. Authors should check for factual errors and for any potential bias.

Authors should also check the terms and conditions of any AI Tool they wish to use so that the AI Tool is only granted restricted rights to use their materials (i.e., to provide a service to the user) and not any other rights (including without limitation the right to train the AI Tool on those materials). They must also ensure that the AI Tool does not impose constraints on the use of outputs from the AI Tool in a way that could restrict the subsequent publication of the relevant book chapter or commissioned content.

Disclosure

Authors should disclose the use of AI Tools for manuscript preparation in a separate AI declaration statement upon submission. The statement should be inserted at the end of the manuscript, immediately above the references, entitled ‘Declaration of Generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process.’ The statement will appear in the published work. Authors should document their use of AI, including the name of the AI Tool used, the purpose of the use, and the extent of their oversight. Declaring the use of AI Tools supports transparency and trust between authors, readers, reviewers, editors and contributors and facilitates compliance with the terms of use of the relevant AI Tool. Basic checks of grammar, spelling and punctuation need no declaration. AI use in the research process should be declared and described in detail in the methods section, if relevant.

Authorship

Authors should not list AI Tools as an author or co-author, nor cite AI Tools as an author. Authorship implies responsibilities and tasks that can only be attributed to and performed by humans. Each individual author is accountable for ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved. Authorship requires the ability to approve the final version of the work and agree to its submission. Authors are also responsible for ensuring that the work is original and has not been previously published, that the stated authors qualify for authorship, and the work does not infringe third party rights, and should familiarize themselves with Elsevier’s Publishing ethics for books policy before they submit.

The use of generative AI and AI-assisted tools in figures, images and artwork

Elsevier does not permit the use of generative AI or AI-assisted tools to create or alter images in submitted manuscripts. This may include enhancing, obscuring, moving, removing, or introducing a specific feature within an image or figure. Adjustments of brightness, contrast, or color balance are acceptable if they do not obscure or eliminate any information present in the original. Image forensics tools or specialized software might be applied to submitted manuscripts to identify suspected image irregularities.

The only exception is if the use of generative AI or AI-assisted tools is part of the research design or research methods (such as in AI-assisted imaging approaches to generate or interpret the underlying research data, for example in the field of biomedical imaging). If this is done, such use must be described in a reproducible manner in the methods section. This should include an explanation of how the generative AI or AI-assisted tools were used in the image creation or alteration process, and the name of the model or tool, version and extension numbers, and manufacturer. Authors should adhere to the AI software’s specific usage policies and ensure correct content attribution. Where applicable, authors could be asked to provide pre-AI-adjusted versions of images and/or the composite raw images used to create the final submitted versions, for editorial assessment.

The use of generative AI or AI-assisted tools in the production of artwork such as for book or commissioned content covers or graphical abstracts is not permitted.

Elsevier's use of AI and AI-assisted technologies in the publication process

At Elsevier, we are committed to harnessing the power of cutting-edge technologies like generative AI to enhance the accessibility and quality of our products and services. We leverage AI Tools across various aspects of our publishing process to improve efficiency, accuracy, and user experience. We strive to integrate AI Tools thoughtfully and ethically, with human oversight, to benefit both our business and our valued customers. We also ensure our AI Tools follow the RELX Responsible AI Principles throughout their development, keeping sustainability and responsibility at the core of what we do.

Policy updated October 2025

For information on the use of generative AI in journal articles, please see Elsevier’s generative AI policies for journals.