Use of AI in Family Medicine Publications: A Joint Editorial From Journal Editors

There are multiple guidelines from publishers and organizations on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in publishing.^1–5 However, none are specific to family medicine. Most journals have some basic AI use recommendations for authors, but more explicit direction is needed, as not all AI tools are the same.

As family medicine journal editors, we want to provide a unified statement about AI in academic publishing for authors, editors, publishers, and peer reviewers based on our current understanding of the field. The technology is advancing rapidly. While text generated from early large language models (LLMs) was relatively easy to identify, text generated from newer versions is getting progressively better at imitating human language and more challenging to detect. Our goal is to develop a unified framework for managing AI in family medicine journals. As this is a rapidly evolving environment, we acknowledge that any such framework will need to continue to evolve. However, we also feel it is important to provide some guidance for where we are today.