IMPLICATIONS OF THE USE OF AI IN SCIENTIFIC PUBLISHING IN LIGHT OF COPYRIGHT LAW

Abstract

The increasing incorporation of generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) within the context of scholarly communication has sparked ethical, legal, and informational debates regarding its effects on intellectual authorship, academic integrity, and copyright protection. The general objective of this study was to examine the implications of submitting unpublished manuscripts to generative AI systems by editorial stakeholders from the perspective of Copyright Law. To this end, a theoretical study was conducted, characterized as basic research with a qualitative and exploratory approach, developed through documentary procedures and grounded in an interdisciplinary perspective between Information Science and Law. The processing of unpublished manuscripts by AI platforms may constitute potential violations of authors’ moral and economic rights, particularly about unauthorized reproduction, the compromise of the originality of the work, and the integrity of the submitted content. It is understood that reviewers and editors do not possess the legal authority to authorize the sharing of manuscripts with commercial AI platforms. It is concluded that the absence of specific editorial policies concerning the use of generative AI in the evaluation and processing of manuscripts is not legally neutral and may entail civil liability for those involved in the editorial process.