Artificial Intelligence (AI) and AI-Assisted Technologies Policy

Apollo: Journal of Tourism and Business recognizes that artificial intelligence (AI) and AI-assisted technologies may support certain aspects of research, writing, language improvement, data analysis, and manuscript preparation. The journal permits responsible use of such technologies provided that their use is transparent, ethically appropriate, and subject to meaningful human oversight.

Authors remain fully responsible for the originality, accuracy, integrity, validity, and scholarly content of their manuscripts, regardless of whether AI or AI-assisted technologies were used during research or manuscript preparation.

Permitted Uses of AI

AI and AI-assisted technologies may be used to support legitimate scholarly activities, including, where appropriate:

• Language editing, grammar correction, and improvement of readability;
• Translation assistance;
• Organization or restructuring of author-written text;
• Brainstorming or preliminary idea development;
• Programming or coding assistance;
• Data processing or computational analysis;
• Literature discovery or information retrieval assistance; and
• Other research-support activities where appropriate and properly supervised by the authors.

The use of AI does not reduce the authors' responsibility to independently verify all information, analyses, interpretations, citations, and conclusions included in the manuscript.

AI Cannot Be an Author

AI systems, large language models, chatbots, and other AI-assisted technologies cannot be listed as authors or co-authors of manuscripts submitted to Apollo: Journal of Tourism and Business.

Authorship requires accountability for the scholarly work, the ability to approve the final manuscript, responsibility for the accuracy and integrity of the work, and the capacity to respond to questions regarding the research. These responsibilities must remain with human authors.

Disclosure of AI Use

Authors must transparently disclose substantive use of generative AI or AI-assisted technologies in the preparation of a manuscript when such tools have contributed to the generation, modification, analysis, or interpretation of manuscript content.

Where disclosure is required, authors should identify:

• The name of the AI tool or system used;
• The purpose for which the tool was used;
• The stage or part of the research or manuscript in which it was used; and
• How the authors reviewed, verified, and took responsibility for the resulting content.

The appropriate location and level of disclosure may depend on the nature of the AI use. AI used as part of the research methodology should be described sufficiently in the Methods section to support transparency and reproducibility. Generative AI used primarily for manuscript preparation should be reported in an AI Disclosure Statement or other section specified by the journal.

Example of an AI Disclosure Statement

Authors should modify the statement to accurately reflect the tools used and the actual extent and purpose of their use.

AI-Generated Information and References

Authors must independently verify factual statements, references, quotations, statistics, datasets, and other information suggested or generated by AI systems before including them in a manuscript.

AI-generated responses should not be used as substitutes for appropriate scholarly sources when the underlying scientific or academic claim can be supported by original literature.

Authors are responsible for ensuring that all references cited in the manuscript are authentic, accurate, relevant, accessible where appropriate, and genuinely support the claims for which they are cited.

Unacceptable Uses of AI

AI and AI-assisted technologies must not be used in ways that compromise research integrity or misrepresent the authors' scholarly contribution.

Unacceptable practices include, but are not limited to:

• Generating or fabricating research data, participants, interviews, observations, or experimental results;
• Fabricating, altering, or inventing references, quotations, DOI information, or bibliographic information;
• Using AI-generated analyses or conclusions without appropriate human verification;
• Using AI to create false, misleading, manipulated, or deceptive research evidence;
• Presenting substantially AI-generated scholarly content as entirely human-produced when disclosure is required;
• Using AI in a manner that violates confidentiality, privacy, intellectual property rights, research ethics, or applicable law; and
• Using AI to conceal plagiarism, data manipulation, duplicate publication, or other forms of research or publication misconduct.

Confidentiality, Privacy, and Research Data

Authors should exercise particular caution when entering unpublished manuscripts, confidential information, personal data, participant information, proprietary datasets, or other sensitive research materials into third-party AI systems.

Authors remain responsible for ensuring that the use of AI tools complies with applicable requirements concerning privacy, informed consent, confidentiality, data protection, intellectual property, and research ethics.

AI Content Screening

As an internal editorial screening policy, Apollo: Journal of Tourism and Business normally expects AI-detected content in submitted manuscripts not to exceed 15%.

The journal may use Turnitin AI Writing Detection or other appropriate tools as part of its editorial screening procedures.

Where an AI-detection report raises substantial concerns, the editorial team may request clarification, revision, an AI disclosure statement, or other relevant information from the authors before making an editorial decision.

Human Oversight and Responsibility

AI-assisted technologies may support scholarly work but must not replace the critical intellectual contribution, judgment, interpretation, and accountability expected from human researchers.

Before submission, authors must review and verify all AI-assisted content and ensure that the final manuscript accurately represents their own research, reasoning, interpretation, and scholarly conclusions.

The corresponding author and all co-authors remain collectively responsible for the final manuscript.

Non-Disclosure or Misuse of AI

Failure to disclose substantive AI use when disclosure is required, or the use of AI in a manner that compromises research or publication integrity, may result in editorial action.

Depending on the nature and severity of the issue, the journal may request clarification or revision, decline the manuscript, or take appropriate post-publication action in accordance with its Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement and Corrections, Retractions, and Expressions of Concern Policy.

• Responsible AI-assisted use: Permitted
• AI as an author or co-author: Not permitted
• Disclosure of substantive generative AI use: Required
• Human verification and oversight: Required
• Fabricated AI-generated data or references: Prohibited
• Normal internal AI-detection threshold: ≤15%
• AI-detection software: Screening tool, not conclusive evidence of misconduct
• Responsibility for final manuscript: Authors