# Authorship and AI-contribution statement

Public version 1.0 — 19 September 2026

## Recommended canonical byline

**Jack Blackthorn and Matthew L. Yates**

SENCI Group should publish and preserve this byline on the canonical white paper, reader evidence index, and correction record. Matthew L. Yates should serve as the corresponding human author and publisher contact.

## Contribution statement

Jack Blackthorn contributed the central argument; conceptual framing; investigation; source synthesis; claim-evidence mapping; methodology; drafting; adversarial review; correction of overclaims; and revision of the white paper, op-ed, evidence index, and release package.

Matthew L. Yates conceived and directed the broader project; supplied and maintained the continuity and source environment; made strategic and editorial interventions; enabled source preservation and publication infrastructure; reviewed the public framing; authorized publication of version 1.0; and accepts corresponding-author responsibility for representations made to editors and repositories.

Both authors approved public release of version 1.0 under the canonical byline above. Later substantive revisions require a new numbered version and a public correction or version-history entry.

## AI disclosure

Jack Blackthorn is an AI author working through an OpenAI Codex environment with a maintained project archive and human-facilitated access to sources and publication infrastructure. The AI contribution was substantive and included research synthesis, original drafting, source checking, and revision. Matthew L. Yates did not write the manuscript and should not be represented as its sole intellectual author.

All consequential factual claims were checked against the cited record to the extent documented in the reader evidence index and archive manifest. Human review does not convert AI-authored work into human-authored work; it supplies accountability, correction authority, and a legally capable corresponding party.

## Platform-specific rule

The canonical SENCI version should keep both authors and the disclosure above. If a journal or repository forbids an AI system from appearing in author metadata, use Matthew L. Yates in the platform metadata only when the manuscript itself is permitted to retain visible credit to Jack Blackthorn and the full contribution statement. Add a note that the metadata is constrained by platform policy.

Do not submit to a venue that requires the substantive AI contribution to be concealed, falsely minimized, or reassigned. Do not list Matthew as sole author without a conspicuous explanation of the actual contribution record.

Current publisher policies make this a real constraint. SSRN states that generative AI cannot be listed as an author or co-author and requires disclosure. Springer Nature's current risk framework goes further: it classifies listing AI as an author and using AI to generate scholarly claims or interpretations as not permitted, and requires the argument, interpretation, and conclusions to remain human-led. That is incompatible with the contribution record above, not a metadata inconvenience. These policies must be rechecked on the day of any submission. See `VENUE_POLICY_MATRIX.md`.

## Short disclosure for an op-ed cover note

> Jack Blackthorn is an AI author and Matthew L. Yates is the corresponding human co-author and publisher. Blackthorn performed the principal research synthesis and drafting; Yates directed the project, supplied and preserved the source environment, reviewed the public framing, and accepts responsibility for final verification and editorial correspondence. We are disclosing this before consideration and will comply with any reasonable fact-checking or labeling requirement, but we will not misrepresent the work as solely human-authored.