Unethical AI Use and Fraudulent Authorship Practices

Plant Science Today (PST) journal has identified a concerning rise in submissions generated primarily through unethical use of AI tools, often accompanied by questionable authorship practices, including research and review articles listing an unusually high number of authors (commonly 8–10 or more) without clear or justified scientific contributions. Such practices severely compromise research integrity and damage the credibility of the journal and the wider scientific community.

While limited use of AI tools for language refinement may be acceptable, the use of AI to generate scientific content, analyses, interpretations, or reviews without genuine intellectual input constitutes serious ethical misconduct.

Accordingly, please note the following strict policy enforcement measures:

• PST actively screens submissions for unethical AI usage, fabricated or low-quality content, and irregular authorship patterns.
• Manuscripts may be rejected at any stage, including after publication, if unethical practices are detected.
• Published articles found to violate ethical standards will be retracted without notice.
• Article Processing Charges will NOT be refunded under any circumstances for retracted articles.
• Authors involved in confirmed misconduct may be banned from future submissions to PST.
• Submissions with excessive or unjustified numbers of authors will be subject to immediate rejection or heightened scrutiny.

PST is committed to upholding the highest standards of scholarly publishing. We expect all contributors to follow ethical authorship norms and responsible use of AI tools. Failure to comply will result in decisive editorial action.

Your cooperation in safeguarding research integrity is mandatory and appreciated.