Circulation's AI Policy: AHA Journal Rules for Cardiovascular Authors

The AHA asks for AI use to be documented in the manuscript and disclosed in the submission system:

Acknowledgements disclosure:

"During the preparation of this manuscript, the authors used ChatGPT (GPT-4, OpenAI) to improve the clarity and readability of the Discussion section. All suggestions were reviewed and edited by the clinical investigators (J.R. and S.M.). The authors take full responsibility for the content of this article."

Submission-system disclosure (the same wording can go in a cover letter):

"We wish to disclose that AI tools were used during manuscript preparation, as listed in the Acknowledgements. ChatGPT (GPT-4, OpenAI) was used for language editing of the Discussion. All content has been reviewed and approved by all authors."

Why two places? The submission-system disclosure tells the editorial office about AI use during submission, and the manuscript documentation lets readers and reviewers see the scope. The AHA's published policy does not ask for AI disclosure in the cover letter.

Circulation publishes clinical trials, observational studies, basic science, and translational research. Each type has different AI disclosure considerations.

For a clinical trial (e.g., a drug efficacy RCT):

"The authors used Claude (Claude 3.5, Anthropic) to improve the language of the Introduction and Discussion sections. No AI tools were used for study design, data collection, statistical analysis, or clinical interpretation. The statistical analysis was performed by the study biostatistician (K.L.) using SAS 9.4 (SAS Institute). All AI-edited text was reviewed against the trial protocol and statistical analysis plan. The authors take full responsibility for the published content."

For an imaging/AI research paper:

"The convolutional neural network described in this study (CardioNet v3) was developed using TensorFlow and trained on the institutional dataset described in Methods. Separately, during manuscript preparation, the authors used ChatGPT (GPT-4, OpenAI) to edit the Results section for clarity. The research methodology and the manuscript editing tool are entirely separate systems. All AI-suggested text edits were reviewed by the senior author (M.P.)."

For a basic science paper:

"During preparation of this manuscript, the authors used GitHub Copilot (Microsoft) to assist with writing Python scripts for single-cell RNA-seq analysis. ChatGPT (GPT-4, OpenAI) was used to improve the readability of the Methods section. All code was validated against manual calculations, and all text edits were reviewed by the authors."

The AHA does not publish a penalty schedule for undisclosed AI use. What the published policy does say:

• Authors are responsible for the accuracy, validity, and originality of computer-generated content, and the AHA quotes COPE in saying authors are liable for any breach of publication ethics.

• Submitted manuscripts may undergo additional scientific integrity assessments, including expert evaluation and analytical tools that use AI, to identify concerns about originality, authorship, completeness, ethical conduct, or appropriate use of emerging technologies.

• AHA policy reflects the best practices of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), and all AHA journals follow the ICMJE Uniform Requirements.

Treat undisclosed AI use as a publication-ethics risk: document the tools in the manuscript and disclose them during submission.

For clinical papers:

• Never input patient data into cloud-based AI tools. This includes de-identified data if re-identification is theoretically possible.

• Keep AI away from Results and Conclusions sections in clinical trial reports. Reviewers expect these sections to reflect the investigators' direct interpretation of the data.

• If your trial involves an AI-based device or algorithm as the intervention, separate the research disclosure from the writing disclosure with clear subheadings.

For basic and translational research:

• If AI helped with bioinformatics code, deposit the code in a public repository and note which portions were AI-assisted.

• For single-cell analyses, proteomics, or genomics pipelines that used AI-assisted code, describe the validation steps clearly.

For reviews and state-of-the-art papers:

• Circulation publishes invited reviews that shape clinical practice. If you use AI to organize or draft sections, the disclosure should reflect this, and the analytical framework should be your own.

• Don't use AI to generate clinical recommendations in review articles. Circulation's clinical practice recommendations carry significant weight with practicing cardiologists.

Before submission checklist:

• [ ] AI tools listed in the Acknowledgements (and in the Methods if used in the research design)

• [ ] AI use disclosed in the submission system

• [ ] No patient data processed through external AI tools

• [ ] Clinical interpretations are human-generated

• [ ] Statistical code validated independently

• [ ] All co-authors aware of AI disclosure

• [ ] Research AI and writing AI clearly distinguished (if applicable)

Optional cover letter wording for AI disclosure (the AHA asks for disclosure in the submission system, not in the cover letter):

"Dear Editors, [standard cover letter content]. We wish to inform you that AI tools were used during manuscript preparation as disclosed in the Acknowledgements and the submission system. Specifically, [tool name and version] was used for [purpose]. All content has been reviewed and approved by all authors, who take full responsibility for the manuscript."

A Circulation submission readiness check can help you verify that your Circulation submission meets the AHA's disclosure and formatting requirements before you submit.

Comply proactively if:

• You used any AI tool (ChatGPT, Grammarly, Copilot) during manuscript preparation

• The journal requires AI use disclosure in the methods or acknowledgments

• Your institution has its own AI use policy that may be stricter

Less concerned if:

• You used AI only for grammar/spell checking (most journals exempt this)

• The journal does not have a formal AI policy yet

• Your use was limited to basic reference checking, which the AHA exempts from disclosure