At the University of Pennsylvania Press, we recognize that artificial intelligence’s impact on scholarly research is evolving and we are committed to regularly updating the core set of practices to which our book authors, journal contributors, peer reviewers, and editors must adhere. These include:
- Book authors and journal contributors must explicitly acknowledge and disclose their use of use of artificial intelligence tools such as Large Language Models (LLMs) or generative AI tools. For the purposes of Penn Press, generative AI is that which is transformative to the author’s argument, intent, prose style, and/or research, whether this involves creation of material or summarization of the same.
- Book authors should discuss their use of AI with their acquiring editor; journal contributors should contact the journal’s editor(s). These individuals can offer guidance on whether the use of the AI tool is acceptable to the Press or journal. If the use is deemed acceptable, use of the tool should be acknowledged within the manuscript (see guidance for generative AI sources from MLA and Chicago).
- AI tools do not meet legal criteria for authorship; only human authors can hold copyright and enter publishing agreements. Therefore, no Penn Press publication—book or journal—accepts work created by generative AI.
- Book authors and journal contributors are fully responsible for their work, including their use of AI tools. Authors and contributors should carefully review the terms and conditions of any AI tools they use; use of these tools means the author must accept responsibility for those terms, which could compromise the author’s intellectual property rights.
- Peer reviewers of books or journal articles are not permitted to feed content into any Large Language Model (LLM) or similar tools (e.g., ChatGPT); this has the potential to be a serious violation of the author’s intellectual property rights. Peer reviewers may not use any generative AI tool to create their peer review.
- AI tools may not be used for translation. Translation is a form of generative AI that we will not accept for publication.
Individual Penn Press journals may retain their own AI policy; please consult individual journals’ “for authors” pages for more information.
Penn Press is committed to transparency about the use of AI by its staff; authors may contact us at any time to ask if or how AI was used during the publishing process.