New Artificial Intelligence Policy released by OLH

The Open Library of Humanities (OLH) is delighted to announce that it has published its Artificial Intelligence (AI) Policy following more than a year-long consultation process with our journals' editorial teams. You can read the policy here.

The policy details the OLH's stance that responsible and transparent use of generative AI must be paramount in academic work to uphold research integrity. Authors will be expected to declare substantial, known uses of generative AI that form a part of their submitted article's research.

OLH's Managing Editor, Dr Simon Everett, who has overseen the consultation process, research and drafting of the policy, said:

At the OLH, it's been imperative for us to respond to the use of generative AI in the scholarly publishing process. Generative AI has become ubiquitous, often seamlessly integrated into many applications for a wide range of purposes, with users not always aware that they are using generative AI-assisted software. Generative AI can provide an opportunity to assist with myriad aspects of academic research while also presenting a major threat to research integrity and ethical best practice in scholarly publishing if it is abused.

Our community-informed, humanities-focussed AI policy provides much needed guidance for authors, editors, and others involved in open access academic publishing where there is currently very little legal guidance.

We thank our journal editorial teams for participating in the consultation process and for providing extremely constructive and well-informed feedback. With their help, we have been able to navigate this controversial policy area to provide clarity on generative AI use for authors, editors and reviewers.

OLH’s Editorial Director, Dr Rose Harris-Birtill, added:

We’re keen to share news of OLH’s AI Policy work to help the wider scholarly community, in line with our core values of openness and inclusivity. Written and researched following extensive consultation with our editors, it is our hope that this policy will help to give much-needed practical guidance to the academic community as we navigate the rapidly-evolving technological developments and challenges presented by AI.

While the OLH is keenly aware of the need for caution when using generative AI in academic research and publishing, it has also been sensitive to the use of generative AI to make academic publishing more equitable, such as for greater accessibility for those with disabilities.

The policy will be monitored closely over the coming months, and is intended to be a living document that evolves as the landscape of generative AI adoption and use changes.

A full report of our editorial consultation process and changes made to the iterative policy drafts can be found here.

About OLH: The Open Library of Humanities is an award-winning, academic-led publisher of 35 diamond open access journals based at Birkbeck, University of London. With initial funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and subsequent support from Arcadia, a charitable fund, the platform covers its costs by payments from an international library consortium rather than any author fee. This funding mechanism enables equitable open access in the humanities disciplines, with charges neither to readers nor authors.

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