Artificial Intelligence

At Macmillan Education, we believe in using AI responsibly and for the benefit of the education community, our teachers and students, authors and editors, and our staff. 

We are committed to adopting an ethically focused approach while using, designing, developing, and deploying AI-assisted solutions. We design and use solutions which contain AI or are enabled by AI responsibly, making sure that we consider and mitigate any negative impact, be it societal or environmental. We place human-centered values at the heart of our approach to the responsible use of AI, and these are reflected in our AI Principles and AI Editorial Policies. 

Protection via policies and guidance

We expect our authors and editors to adhere to our AI Principles. These principles are reflected in our AI editorial policies and guidance. The AI Ethics and Policy Forums consistently monitor for global and community expectations, as well as regulations, to stay updated on ongoing developments that could affect our business. Thus, our AI Editorial Policies will be updated as needed.

  • We do not attribute authorship to AI
  • We do not allow the inclusion of generative images in our publications

Transparency:  ​

The use of generative AI tools should be declared in the Introduction ​or Acknowledgements of the manuscript.​ The use of an AI tool for “AI assisted copy editing” purposes does not need to be declared.

Accountability:  ​

AI is a tool and cannot be held accountable. Thus, authorship and other tasks requiring accountability can only be performed by a human. ​

Thinking about using AI?

Chatbots and other AI tools offer many time saving options and are certainly attractive in terms of quick outputs. It is important to remember our AI Principles and policies when using AI. The quality of your AI output will be determined by your input. So, it is critical to remember to be responsible when entering prompts. Prompts are what you input into the AI in order to generate an output. Prompts can be questions, instructional text, data, images, video, or a combination.  

  • Consider how you craft your prompt in terms of bias, both in terms of input and output. ​
  • Do not include personal, sensitive, confidential or copyright information in prompts.  ​
  • Do not create prompts that could lead to harmful or malicious outcomes.  ​
  • Take accountability for the impact of your prompts.  ​
  • Before deploying prompts widely, test them to ensure they lead to appropriate and ethical responses. Be guided by our AI Principles. ​
  • Stay informed about the latest developments in AI ethics and incorporate best practices into prompt creation. 

Macmillan Education supports our authors, editors, and teachers by adding value throughout the educational ecosystem. ​

We leverage technologies like AI to make education more effective and accessible. And we do so, responsibly, in line with our AI Principles. ​

  • Accelerating learning - We focus on the needs of students and teachers and help them become more agile and efficient.  ​
  • Promoting equity - Making educational resources easier to access is crucial for finding solutions to global challenges. ​
  • Protecting integrity - Ensuring the trustworthiness of educational resources is paramount both for teaching and learning. In the age of AI, safeguarding against fraudulent practices within the educational ecosystem becomes an increasingly important concern.  ​