# AI-Assistance Disclosure

In compliance with Springer Nature's 2023 policy on generative AI tools in scholarly publishing, the authors disclose the following AI assistance used in preparing this manuscript.

## Tools used
- **Claude (Anthropic)**, used for language polishing, duplicate-content detection, and structural review of selected passages.
- **OpenAlex REST API**, used post-hoc to verify citation metadata (DOIs, venues, publication years) for the reference list.

## Scope of AI assistance
AI tools were used strictly for:
1. **Language editing**: grammar, sentence-level flow, and removal of redundant or formulaic phrasing.
2. **Reference verification**: automated matching of manually curated references against OpenAlex records to populate DOI and venue fields.
3. **Consistency checking**: cross-checking for verbatim duplication between sections and for inconsistent terminology.

## Scope explicitly NOT delegated to AI
AI tools did **not** contribute:
- Original research design, methodology, or analysis
- Identification, selection, or interpretation of cited literature
- Authorship-level content in the abstract, introduction, methodology, discussion, or conclusion
- Case-study selection or description beyond language polishing
- Any claim, argument, or finding presented in the manuscript

## Author responsibility
All authors have read, revised, and approved the final manuscript. The authors take full responsibility for the integrity, accuracy, and originality of the content, including all passages where AI assistance was used in editing. Every AI-suggested edit was reviewed by at least one author before inclusion.

## Generated content flagging
Passages where AI-assisted rewriting was applied have been re-verified by at least one author. Any passage that could not be satisfactorily edited to the authors' voice has been either retained in its original form or rewritten manually.