E01¶


Research	R0029 — Plural Voice Attribution
Run	2026-03-27
Query	Q003
Source	SRC02
Evidence	SRC02-E01
Type	Factual

Science journal policy evolution and current position on AI

URL: https://www.science.org/content/page/science-journals-editorial-policies

Extract¶

FACT: Science's AI policy evolved through two phases:

January 2023 (initial): Editor-in-Chief Holden Thorp declared AI-generated content "a form of plagiarism." Text, figures, images, and graphics produced by AI were prohibited without explicit editor permission.

November 2023 (revision): Science reversed its ban, now permitting "AI-assisted technologies as components of their research study or as aids in the writing or presentation of the manuscript." Requirements: disclosure in cover letter, acknowledgments section, and detailed methods section including full prompts used and AI tool version.

Current position: AI may not be listed as author or co-author. Authors are accountable for accuracy, plagiarism prevention, appropriate citations, and guarding against AI-introduced bias.

Relevance to Hypotheses¶

Hypothesis	Relationship	Strength
H1	Supports	Prohibition confirmed; disclosure required
H2	Contradicts	Formal policy exists (and has been revised)
H3	Supports	The policy reversal and unique prompt-disclosure requirement demonstrate variation

Context¶

Science's policy reversal is analytically important — it shows that initial maximalist positions (total ban) proved impractical, leading to a more nuanced approach. The requirement to include full prompts in the methods section is more detailed than most other venues.