AI Use Policy | Behind The Lines

Our AI Use Policy

We use AI transparently as a research tool, always verifying sources and prioritising human-created content.

Principles

Open about AI use in research, recommendations, and grammar checks.

Cite all checked, credible sources.

Human-written articles, reports, and client docs only-no AI authorship or plagiarism.

We will...

Use AI to find credible sources, then verify and cite them.

Suggest recommended reading after human review and citation.

Grammar-check human work with human oversight.

Correct citation errors immediately if notified.

We won't...

Publish AI-written articles, posts, reports, or client docs.

Rely on unchecked AI outputs or plagiarise any content.

Treat AI as author or co-author.

Input confidential data into AI tools.

What We Do - And Don't

Our Commitment

We ensure all public content is human-created and properly sourced. Contact us if you spot issues, we'll fix them promptly.

The long version Our AI Use Policy

We believe artificial intelligence (AI) can be a useful tool when it is used transparently, carefully, and under full human responsibility. This policy explains how we use AI and, just as importantly, how we do not use it.

1. Our Principles

Transparency: We are open about when and how AI tools support our work.

Human authorship: All articles, reports, client documents, and core website content are written by humans, not AI

Verification and accuracy: Any information found with the help of AI is checked against credible, citable sources before we use it.

Academic-style integrity: We follow the spirit of academic and publisher guidance that treats undisclosed or unverified AI use as a problem for research integrity and good practice.

No plagiarism: We never copy other people’s work, whether produced by humans or AI, and we always aim to cite our sources properly.

Area:	We will:	We Will Not:
Research and fact-finding	Use AI tools to help locate topics, papers, and credible sources, then independently verify them before relying on them.	Treat AI outputs as authoritative or final, or rely on them without checking against reputable, independent sources.
Recommended reading and links	Use AI to surface possible readings and resources, then manually review and select only those that meet our quality and relevance standards and provide citations where appropriate.	Auto-generate reading lists or link collections and publish them without human review and source checking.
Grammar, clarity and style	Use AI to check grammar, spelling, and basic clarity, in the same way we might use a spell-checker or style aid, with human review of any suggestions.	Allow AI to rewrite or substantially author our articles, reports, or client documents.
Content creation (public-facing)	Keep all published articles, blog posts, and web pages human-written and human-edited, even if researchers used AI as a background tool for searching or checking.	Publish articles, posts, or pages written wholly or substantially by AI, even if lightly edited.
Client reports and documentation	Ensure all client reports, deliverables, and documentation are written, reasoned, and finalised by humans, with any AI-supported research fully checked and properly sourced.	Use AI to draft client reports, proposals, or documentation, or to make recommendations without human oversight and accountability.
Confidential information	Avoid entering sensitive, confidential, or client-identifying information into public AI tools.	Upload full client documents, personal data, or proprietary information into AI systems where we cannot control retention or use.
Attribution and citation	Provide citations or attributions to the best of our ability for ideas, data, and quotations we use, whether discovered through AI or traditional research.	Treat AI outputs as authoritative or final, or rely on them without checking against reputable, independent sources.

3. Commitment to Human-Created Work

Our core position is that meaningful work should be created and owned by humans, even when AI is used as a background research or checking tool. In line with the direction of many academic journals and professional bodies, we do not treat AI as an author, co‑author, or originator of our publications, reports, or client materials.

This means:

No AI-written blog posts, articles, or opinion pieces on our site.

No AI-written client documentation, reports, or deliverables.

The final judgement about wording, interpretation, and conclusions always rests with a human team member.

4. Antiplagiarism and Integrity‑Plagiarism and Integrity

We align ourselves with academic and publishing expectations that prohibit presenting AI-generated content as one’s own and require disclosure of significant AI assistance. We treat uncredited copying-whether from human authors or AI-generated text trained on others’ work-as plagiarism.

To uphold this:

We do not paste AI text into our work and lightly edit it in place of genuine authorship.

We cross-check key claims with original, citable sources (for example, peer reviewed research, recognised professional bodies, or authoritative public data).‑reviewed research, recognised professional bodies, or authoritative public data).

We accept full responsibility for any content we publish, regardless of whether AI tools were consulted.

5. If We Get It Wrong

Despite our efforts, mistakes can happen. If we fail to cite a source properly, or if you believe we have relied on AI in a way that conflicts with this policy, we want to know about it.

You can contact us via the details on our site to raise any concern about sourcing, attribution, or AI use.

We will review the material, add or correct citations, clarify our use of AI where necessary, or amend or remove content that does not meet this policy.

Where appropriate, we will add a brief correction or clarification note so that the record is transparent going forward.

By publishing this policy, we invite our readers, clients, and peers to hold us accountable and help us keep our AI use transparent, careful, and firmly rooted in human-created work.

This is some of the human reading that informed our policy's, principles on transparency, human oversight and citation:

causewriter.ai/resources/breakdown-of-18-ai-policies

sc.edu/study/colleges_schools/education/research/forms/ai_guidelines.php

coggno.com/blog/partners/ai-writing-policy

libguides.nps.edu/citation/generativeAI

We will...

Use AI to find credible sources, then verify and cite them.
Suggest recommended reading after human review and citation.
Grammar-check human work with human oversight.
Correct citation errors immediately if notified.

We will not...

Publish AI-written articles, posts, reports, or client docs.
Rely on unchecked AI outputs or plagiarise any content.
Use AI as author or co-author.
Input confidential data into AI tools.

Our Commitment

We ensure all public content is human-created and properly sourced. Contact us if you spot issues, we'll fix them promptly.

The long version Our AI Use Policy

1. Our Principles

Transparency: We are open about when and how AI tools support our work.

Human authorship: All articles, reports, client documents, and core website content are written by humans, not AI

Verification and accuracy: Any information found with the help of AI is checked against credible, citable sources before we use it.

Academic-style integrity: We follow the spirit of academic and publisher guidance that treats undisclosed or unverified AI use as a problem for research integrity and good practice.

No plagiarism: We never copy other people’s work, whether produced by humans or AI, and we always aim to cite our sources properly.

Area	We will:	We Will Not:
Research and fact-finding	Use AI tools to help locate topics, papers, and credible sources, then independently verify them before relying on them.	Treat AI outputs as authoritative or final, or rely on them without checking against reputable, independent sources.
Recommended reading and links	Use AI to surface possible readings and resources, then manually review and select only those that meet our quality and relevance standards and provide citations where appropriate.	Auto-generate reading lists or link collections and publish them without human review and source checking.
Grammar, clarity and style	Use AI to check grammar, spelling, and basic clarity, in the same way we might use a spell-checker or style aid, with human review of any suggestions.	Allow AI to rewrite or substantially author our articles, reports, or client documents.
Content creation (public-facing)	Keep all published articles, blog posts, and web pages human-written and human-edited, even if researchers used AI as a background tool for searching or checking.	Publish articles, posts, or pages written wholly or substantially by AI, even if lightly edited.
Client reports and documentation	Ensure all client reports, deliverables, and documentation are written, reasoned, and finalised by humans, with any AI-supported research fully checked and properly sourced.	Use AI to draft client reports, proposals, or documentation, or to make recommendations without human oversight and accountability.
Confidential information	Avoid entering sensitive, confidential, or client-identifying information into public AI tools.	Upload full client documents, personal data, or proprietary information into AI systems where we cannot control retention or use.
Attribution and citation	Provide citations or attributions to the best of our ability for ideas, data, and quotations we use, whether discovered through AI or traditional research.	Treat AI outputs as authoritative or final, or rely on them without checking against reputable, independent sources.