JAMA's AI Policy: What You Can Use, What You Must Disclose, and Where the Lines Are

JAMA is published by the American Medical Association, and the AMA's position on AI in scholarly publishing aligns closely with JAMA's editorial policy. But JAMA's editorial rules are more granular than the AMA's general principles. While the AMA endorses transparency in AI use broadly, JAMA specifies where disclosure goes (the Acknowledgment section), what to report (tool name, version and extension numbers, manufacturer, dates of use, and a description of how it was used), and that content may be rejected or subject to postpublication corrective action if disclosure is missing.

Each JAMA Network journal publishes its own Instructions for Authors page. This page covers the flagship JAMA, so confirm the wording on the instructions page of any other JAMA Network journal you target.

JAMA's AI policy has four requirements:

1. AI can't be an author. JAMA's instructions say nonhuman artificial intelligence, language models, machine learning, or similar technologies do not qualify for authorship.

1. AI use must be reported in the Acknowledgment section. If you used ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, or any other AI tool to assist with content creation, revision, or formatting, report it in the Acknowledgment section. If AI is part of the formal research design or methods, describe it in the Methods section.

1. The disclosure must be specific. JAMA lists what to report: the tool name, version and extension numbers, manufacturer, date(s) of use, a brief description of how the AI was used and on what portions, and confirmation that the authors take responsibility for the content. A vague statement like "AI tools assisted with writing" leaves most of that out.

1. Authors are fully responsible. Using an AI tool doesn't shift any responsibility. Authors must review and confirm the accuracy of all AI-generated content and take full responsibility for it. JAMA also does not permit AI to draft Viewpoints, Letters to the Editor, and other opinion or correspondence pieces, and says AI should not be used to generate or format references.

The dividing line in JAMA's text: use of AI, LLMs, chatbots, or similar technologies to assist with content creation, revision, or formatting must be reported, and basic tools for checking grammar, spelling, and references are excluded.

JAMA lists the elements a statement should contain. A properly formatted statement:

"During preparation of this manuscript, the authors used ChatGPT (GPT-4, OpenAI) in March 2026 to assist with editing the Discussion section for clarity and conciseness. The authors reviewed and revised all AI-generated suggestions and take full responsibility for the integrity of the content."

Elements JAMA lists: tool name, version and extension numbers (GPT-4, Claude 3.5), manufacturer (OpenAI), date(s) of use, a brief description of how it was used and on what portions, and a confirmation that the authors take responsibility.

A statement that wouldn't pass: "AI tools were used during manuscript preparation." Too vague: it omits the tool, version, manufacturer, dates, and description JAMA lists.

For multiple tools, disclose each separately:

"In March 2026, the authors used ChatGPT (GPT-4, OpenAI) to improve the readability of the Introduction and Claude (Claude 3.5, Anthropic) to assist with drafting the statistical analysis code in R. All AI outputs were reviewed and verified by the authors, who take full responsibility for the integrity of the content."

The JAMA Network has 13 journals: JAMA, JAMA Network Open, JAMA Health Forum, and ten specialty titles including JAMA Internal Medicine, JAMA Oncology, JAMA Cardiology, JAMA Neurology, JAMA Pediatrics, and JAMA Surgery. The instructions page this guide was checked against is the one for the flagship JAMA. JAMA does not state on that page that the identical AI policy governs every Network title, so read the instructions page of the specific journal before submitting.

The Instructions for Authors page was last updated on September 8, 2026, and JAMA revises its AI wording from time to time, so check the live page before you submit.

Some researchers worry that disclosing AI use will bias editors against their manuscript. JAMA's instructions frame reporting as a requirement and say that failure to disclose can lead to rejection or postpublication corrective action.

A paper with a clear, honest AI disclosure is better positioned than one where undisclosed AI use is later discovered.

JAMA says that if incomplete disclosure or failure to disclose use of AI is detected during the editorial process or after publication, content may be rejected or subject to postpublication corrective action.

JAMA states that it accepts 10% of its submissions. If your paper survives that filter and then needs corrective action because you didn't write two sentences in the Acknowledgment section, that's a self-inflicted wound with a long tail. Co-authors get dragged in.

Over-disclose. Two extra sentences in the Acknowledgment section cost you nothing. Getting caught costs you everything.