Critical Literary Studies recognizes generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a potentially useful assistive tool in scholarly research, provided that its use remains transparent, responsible, and consistent with research ethics. AI must not replace human creativity, critical thinking, interpretation, scholarly judgment, or authorial responsibility; the intellectual substance of every submitted manuscript must remain the work of its human author(s). Authors may use AI tools for limited research assistance, language refinement, organization, translation support, or similar purposes, but all AI-assisted outputs must be independently reviewed, verified, and scientifically validated before use. Any substantive use of AI must be disclosed, preferably indicating the tool, version where available, purpose, and manner of use. AI must not be used to generate core scholarly arguments, interpretations, findings, discussions, conclusions, fabricated data, quotations, references, or citations without genuine human intellectual contribution and verification. Authors must also ensure that AI use does not result in plagiarism, misinformation, copyright infringement, breach of confidentiality, or disclosure of sensitive or unpublished material. AI-assisted or AI-generated content that has been paraphrased, rewritten, translated, or “humanized” remains subject to the same disclosure and integrity requirements. The authors remain fully accountable for the accuracy, originality, reliability, legality, citations, analyses, and conclusions of their manuscripts, regardless of any AI assistance received. Undisclosed or inappropriate AI use may lead to editorial investigation, rejection, or other measures consistent with the journal’s publication-ethics procedures.