International Journal of Wound Research (IJWR) recognizes that generative artificial intelligence and AI-assisted technologies may support certain aspects of manuscript preparation, research methodology, data analysis, and scientific communication. Their use must, however, be transparent, responsible, and consistent with the principles of research integrity, patient confidentiality, data protection, scientific reproducibility, and human accountability.

Authorship

Artificial intelligence tools, language models, chatbots, and other AI-assisted technologies cannot be listed as authors or co-authors.

Authorship requires human responsibilities that cannot be assigned to an AI system, including:

• approval of the final version of the manuscript;
• accountability for the accuracy and integrity of the work;
• management and disclosure of conflicts of interest;
• responsibility for ethical compliance;
• response to questions concerning the validity, reliability, or interpretation of the article.

All authors remain individually and collectively responsible for the content submitted to and published by IJWR.

Use by Authors

Authors remain fully responsible for the originality, accuracy, integrity, reliability, and clinical appropriateness of all submitted content, including material generated, translated, revised, analysed, or otherwise supported by AI technologies.

Generative AI must not be used to fabricate, alter, conceal, or misrepresent:

• research data or results;
• statistical analyses;
• references or citations;
• clinical records;
• wound images or other patient photographs;
• ethical approvals or informed-consent documentation;
• conflicts-of-interest or funding disclosures;
• authorship contributions;
• other elements of the scientific record.

Authors must independently verify all factual statements, references, analyses, interpretations, and outputs generated or supported by AI tools.

AI-generated references must not be included unless the authors have verified their existence, accuracy, relevance, and correspondence with the cited source.

AI tools must not be used as a substitute for clinical expertise, methodological competence, or independent scientific judgment.

Disclosure

The use of generative AI or AI-assisted technologies to generate, substantially revise, translate, analyse, interpret, or otherwise modify intellectual or scientific content must be disclosed at the time of submission and described in the manuscript.

The disclosure should identify:

• the name and version of the tool;
• the developer or provider, where relevant;
• the purpose for which the tool was used;
• the parts of the manuscript or research process affected by its use;
• the steps taken by the authors to review, verify, and validate the output.

A suitable statement is:

“During the preparation of this manuscript, the authors used [name and version of tool] for [purpose]. The authors reviewed and verified all generated or modified content and accept full responsibility for the final version of the manuscript.”

The use of basic spelling, grammar, reference-management, or formatting tools that do not generate or substantially modify intellectual or scientific content does not normally require disclosure.

Editorial language editing performed after acceptance does not alter the authors’ responsibility for the scientific content of the article.

Clinical Images and Wound Photography

Generative AI must not be used to create, reconstruct, simulate, or materially alter clinical wound images presented as records of actual patients, treatments, or outcomes.

AI-assisted enhancement of clinical photographs is permitted only for limited technical adjustments that do not alter clinically relevant information. Permitted adjustments may include minor corrections to brightness, contrast, orientation, or image size, provided that:

• no clinically relevant feature is added, removed, concealed, or distorted;
• the original unmodified image is retained;
• the adjustment is disclosed in the figure legend;
• the image remains an accurate representation of the patient’s clinical condition.

Authors may be required to provide the original, unmodified image files during peer review or after publication.

AI-generated images may be used for clearly identified educational, graphical, or conceptual illustrations only when they are not presented as clinical evidence or as images of real patients. Their use must be disclosed in the figure legend.

Clinical photographs remain subject to the journal’s requirements concerning patient confidentiality and written consent for publication.

Images, Figures, Data, and Analysis

The use of generative AI to create or modify scientific images, figures, datasets, or research results is not permitted when it could misrepresent the original data or affect their interpretation.

When AI or machine-learning methods form part of the research methodology, their use must be described transparently and in sufficient detail to allow scientific evaluation and, where possible, reproducibility.

Authors should report, as applicable:

• the name, developer, and version of the tool or model;
• the purpose of the analysis;
• model architecture or methodological approach;
• parameters and relevant settings;
• source, characteristics, and preparation of input data;
• training and validation procedures;
• reference standards or ground truth;
• performance measures;
• human oversight;
• external validation;
• limitations, potential biases, and clinical risks.

Any permitted use of AI-assisted image processing must be disclosed in the figure legend and must not obscure, remove, introduce, or alter scientifically relevant information.

Original data and files must be retained and made available to the editors when necessary to evaluate research integrity.

AI in Wound Assessment and Clinical Decision Support

Research involving AI-assisted wound measurement, image segmentation, tissue classification, healing prediction, risk assessment, remote monitoring, or clinical decision support must describe the technology and its validation in sufficient detail.

Authors must clearly report:

• the intended clinical use;
• the wound types and patient populations evaluated;
• the image-acquisition or data-collection procedures;
• the reference standard used for comparison;
• the role of healthcare professionals in reviewing AI outputs;
• diagnostic or predictive performance;
• potential sources of bias;
• limitations affecting generalizability;
• whether the tool has received any relevant regulatory authorization.

AI-generated outputs must not be presented as replacing professional clinical assessment unless supported by appropriate evidence and applicable regulatory approval.

Where a commercial product, software application, platform, medical device, or proprietary algorithm is evaluated, authors must identify the manufacturer or provider and disclose all relevant financial, professional, institutional, or intellectual conflicts of interest.

Confidentiality and Personal Data

Authors must not upload confidential research information, identifiable patient or participant data, clinical photographs, unpublished third-party material, or content subject to confidentiality or intellectual-property restrictions into public or external AI systems unless appropriate safeguards, permissions, and data-protection arrangements are in place.

Patient information must be anonymized or pseudonymized in accordance with applicable laws, ethical approvals, institutional policies, and consent requirements.

The removal of names or direct identifiers may not be sufficient where a patient could still be recognized from clinical images, distinctive wounds, tattoos, anatomical features, rare conditions, or contextual information.

Authors remain responsible for ensuring compliance with applicable data-protection legislation, including the General Data Protection Regulation where relevant.

Use by Reviewers

Manuscripts submitted to IJWR are confidential documents.

Reviewers must not upload manuscripts, supplementary files, clinical images, datasets, peer-review reports, editorial correspondence, or unpublished information into public or external generative AI systems.

Reviewers must not use generative AI to draft, rewrite, summarize, or substantively edit their review reports. Review reports must represent the reviewer’s own independent assessment, expertise, and intellectual work.

AI tools must not replace the reviewer’s evaluation of:

• scientific originality;
• methodological rigor;
• clinical relevance;
• ethical compliance;
• statistical validity;
• interpretation of wound-related outcomes;
• patient confidentiality;
• accuracy of clinical images and data.

Reviewers remain fully accountable for every comment and recommendation submitted to the journal.

Use by Editors and Editorial Staff

Editors and members of the Editorial Office must preserve the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts and related material.

They must not upload manuscripts, reviews, correspondence, unpublished data, clinical images, or confidential author information into public or external generative AI systems.

Editors must not use generative AI to make editorial decisions or replace independent editorial judgment.

AI-assisted administrative tools may be used for limited organizational or integrity-screening purposes only when:

• confidentiality and data-protection requirements are respected;
• the output is subject to human review;
• the tool does not independently determine acceptance, rejection, reviewer selection, or editorial outcomes.

Responsibility for all editorial decisions remains with the human editor.

Investigation of Undisclosed or Inappropriate Use

Suspected undisclosed, misleading, unethical, or inappropriate use of generative AI or AI-assisted technologies will be evaluated in accordance with the journal’s Research Misconduct Policy, Editorial Policies, and relevant principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics.

The journal may request:

• a detailed explanation of how AI tools were used;
• original data or image files;
• earlier manuscript versions;
• software outputs or analysis logs;
• validation documentation;
• ethics and consent records;
• other supporting materials.

Depending on the nature and seriousness of the issue, the journal may:

• request clarification or revision;
• reject the manuscript;
• suspend the editorial process;
• publish a correction;
• publish an Expression of Concern;
• retract a published article;
• notify the authors’ institutions, ethics committees, funders, or other relevant bodies.

Failure to disclose relevant AI use may itself constitute a breach of publication ethics.

Policy last updated: June 20, 2026.