# Nature Portfolio — Canonical AI Policy Source

**Status**: Source of truth for Nature substantive policy content cited by both:

1. `academic-paper/references/policy_anchor_table.md` — Nature anchor (#108 policy-anchor track, verbatim quotes per 16 fields)
2. `academic-paper/references/venue_disclosure_policies.md` — Nature venue entry (v3.2 venue track, summary form)

**Provenance**: extracted from the Nature Portfolio AI editorial policy page (`https://www.nature.com/nature-portfolio/editorial-policies/ai`), wayback snapshot `nature:wayback=20260513075542` (sha256 `cf691cba…`). Section structure: `§AI authorship`, `§Generative AI images`, `§AI use by peer reviewers`, `§Editorial use`. ARS author-side matrix covers `§AI authorship` + `§Generative AI images` only.

**G4 invariant** (Decision Doc §4.3): edits to Nature substantive policy content must go through **this file** first; both downstream consumers (policy_anchor_table.md Nature section and venue_disclosure_policies.md Nature entry) re-cite from here. Direct edits to either consumer that change Nature substantive content are non-conformant.

**Dedup lint**: `verify_nature_dedup_with_venue()` in `scripts/check_policy_anchor_table.py` confirms (a) this file exists, (b) both consumers reference the path `shared/policy_data/nature_policy.md` as their canonical pointer.

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## Nature substantive policy quotes (verbatim, source-of-truth)

### §AI authorship — text-use policy

> "Large Language Models (LLMs), such as ChatGPT, do not currently satisfy our authorship criteria. Notably an attribution of authorship carries with it accountability for the work, which cannot be effectively applied to LLMs. Use of an LLM should be properly documented in the Methods section (and if a Methods section is not available, in a suitable alternative part) of the manuscript."

> "In all cases, there must be human accountability for the final version of the text and agreement from the authors that the edits reflect their original work."

### §AI authorship — copyediting carve-out

> "The use of an LLM (or other AI-tool) for "AI assisted copy editing" purposes does not need to be declared."

The carve-out predicate (paraphrased policy framing, partial verbatim): AI-assisted improvements to human-generated texts for readability and style — explicitly **excluding** generative editorial work and autonomous content creation.

### §Generative AI images — image-rights regime

> "Springer Nature journals are unable to permit its use for publication."

> "All exceptions must be labelled clearly as generated by AI within the image field."

Carve-outs (per Nature policy text, three categories): figures using AI to enhance or compose existing scientific data; AI-generated images that are themselves the subject of academic study (e.g., AI-art history); image-generation tools used to produce illustrations clearly marked as conceptual rather than scientific.

### §Generative AI images — non-generative ML caption rule

> "should be disclosed in the relevant caption upon submission"

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## Consumer integration notes

- `policy_anchor_table.md` Nature anchor: extracts these quotes per 16-field matrix (3 explicit-mandate + 2 explicit-recommend + 4 implicit + 7 not-addressed).
- `venue_disclosure_policies.md` Nature entry: summarises the same source as venue-track guidance (Methods placement default, full responsibility statement requirement, no AI authorship).
- Renderer (LLM-prose): when the user selects either `--venue=Nature` or `--policy-anchor=nature`, the renderer cites this file's verbatim quotes in the emitted disclosure paragraph. Both tracks share the substantive policy content; placement (Methods vs anchor-specific) is the track-specific rendering decision.

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## Related

- Discovery doc §4.5 — Nature anchor matrix with cross-anchor observation
- Decision Doc §2.4 G4 (renderer target) + §4.3 G4 invariant (Nature dedup)
- Impl spec §3 concern #5 resolution (hybrid image output channel)
