Automation and Accountability: Ethical standards of Peer Review and Publication in Medical Journals

In an era of rapidly progressing technological advancements, we often find ourselves at crossroads, contemplating whether the use of a particular technology that appears to make our life easier is ethical or not.Use of artificial intelligence (AI) in research and publication is one such topic of today.The basic purpose of scientific quest is to find the truth, and in a manner that conforms to the principles of bioethics, especially so in medical research.To lead with light on such pertinent issues there are organisations such as International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), World Association of Medical Editors (WAME), Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), which provide guidelines that are updated from time to time, that serve as ethical standards for processing and publishing research.Journals comply to these guidelines, and it is essential to create awareness about these guidelines and their updates among authors, reviewers and editorial board members to maintain ethical standards in medica journals.With this objective, some important updates by the WAME, and ICMJE in January 2026 in the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals are briefly discussed here.1,2