ChatGPT and Publication Ethics

Academic publishing is crucial for scientific communication, is governed by accepted ethical norms, and underpins the collective literature on basic science, and technological and medical principles and advances. In November 2022, the public and professional global communities, including the scientific community, witnessed the release of ChatGPT by OpenAI in San Francisco, California, USA. Excluding its public appeal and entertaining aspects but considering its diverse potential applications, some ethical concerns must be considered before establishing guidelines on using and including ChatGPT or similar platforms in scientific publishing. Some academic publishers and preprints have accepted manuscripts with ChatGPT listed as a “co-author”. Though excluding such platforms from scientific publishing may not be practicable with time, establishing ethical principles is essential before ChatGPT could become a “co-author” in any scientific, published manuscript.