Artificial intelligence and automated tools

The Sahelian Journal of Health Sciences (JSSS) does not prohibit the use of automated tools, including generative artificial intelligence, but requires that such use be declared and remain the responsibility of identified individuals.

For authors

• Disclosure: any use of generative artificial intelligence in the design of the study, the analysis of the data or the writing of the manuscript must be disclosed in a dedicated section placed before the references. Straightforward language correction and formatting need not be disclosed.
• Responsibility: authors are accountable for the accuracy of any content produced with the help of an automated tool, in particular the references, which they must verify one by one.
• Authorship: an artificial intelligence cannot be listed as an author or co-author, since it cannot take responsibility for the work.
• Citation: an artificial intelligence is not a source and cannot be cited as one.
• Images and data: any figure or dataset produced or altered by an automated tool must be identified as such.

For reviewers and editors

• A submitted manuscript is a confidential document: it must not be uploaded to any online artificial intelligence service, whose terms of use lie beyond the journal's control.
• Scientific assessment commits a person: it cannot be delegated to a generative artificial intelligence. Language editing of a report written by the reviewer remains acceptable, provided it is disclosed to the editorial office.

For the journal

Any routine use of an automated tool by the editorial office — similarity detection, reference checking, editorial formatting — is overseen by a member of the editorial committee, who verifies every flag before any editorial consequence follows. No decision on a manuscript is taken on the strength of an automated result alone.