(10 Sep 2026) We have updated our author and editor guidelines on the responsible, appropriate, and transparent use of AI, including a policy outlining what AI use should be disclosed when preparing manuscripts for our journals.
In a recent global survey of more than 2,600 researchers, nearly three-quarters (74%) of respondents revealed they were unclear what AI use they should disclose, despite there being strong support for disclosure.
With 44% of researchers concerned that disclosing their use of AI will negatively impact how others view their work, and only 36% recording their AI use during their research, our survey emphasizes the growing gap between AI use and disclosure in academic research, and recognizes the need for clear disclosure policies.
Direct to Full Text Report (59 pages; PDF)
Selected Findings From the Survey:
- 64% of researchers report AI as beneficial to their research, with over two-thirds (68%) using AI chatbots on the open web for their research, and just under half (49%) using machine translation.
- AI tools are most commonly used for discovering existing research (55%), summarizing existing research (46%), and editing the write-up of research (45%). Many (68%) agree that AI tools can reduce accessibility barriers, too.
- However, 35% of those in the arts and humanities never use AI tools in their research, as opposed to 15% and 18% for STM and the social sciences, respectively.
- Only 20% trust AI-generated outputs. 37% of researchers who haven’t used AI for their research report concerns about accuracy, bias, and trustworthiness, and only 26% find AI-generated literature summaries to be accurate.
- However, 83% of those surveyed have established practices for checking citation sources generated by AI, and 80% always cross-check AI outputs for reliability.
- Based on respondents’ perceptions and behaviours towards AI, survey analysis identified five different profiles of researcher.
- These range from the least trusting of AI—the ‘persistent sceptics’—who are most commonly found in the arts and humanities, to the ‘carefree casuals’, who are less likely to record their own AI use and are more common among later career stage respondents than early career researchers.
- Meanwhile, ‘frustrated trailblazers’ have benefited most from AI but are also the most concerned about the administrative burden of disclosing its use. They are more prevalent in the social sciences and STM disciplines, and among early career researchers.
- Nearly three-quarters (74%) report uncertainty around AI disclosure requirements, while only 36% actively keep records of their AI use during research. One respondent acknowledged:
“I tend to make sure my AI use is undetectable as I’m not sure what to disclose.” - 44% are concerned that disclosing AI use could negatively affect perceptions of their work—many of whom are in the arts and humanities—with 35% finding AI disclosure to place an additional administrative burden on researchers.
- 45% of researchers report their institution’s approach to AI use as unclear, while 43% report a somewhat or very enabling approach.
- Looking at different research outputs over the last year, many researchers acknowledge that they do not fully disclose their use of AI tools:
- 48% of those writing grant applications had not fully disclosed AI use, particularly in narrative drafting, translating or editing, and plain language summaries.
- 46% of journal authors and 39% of book authors had not fully disclosed their AI use in preparing their manuscript, particularly in narrative drafting in each case. Only a third (30%) of book authors and 42% of journal authors were asked to attest whether AI was used in their manuscript submission.
- 25% of peer reviewers had not fully disclosed AI use, particularly in language editing. 60% felt their AI use and disclosure complied with the reviewer policies, but the views were more mixed as to whether the journal policies on AI use were clear.
- Many authors want future AI disclosure policies to change, with some calling for clearer and more consistent guidelines on AI use and disclosure.
- Others suggest policies should support a move towards the normalization of AI as a tool with minimal disclosure.
- Looking at future AI disclosure policies to support researchers as readers of others’ work, many want to see standardized and mandatory AI disclosure introduced.
The report in full can be download here.
