NIH Notice: Research Misconduct Risks of AI

On July 17, 2025, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) issued notice NOT-OD-25-132 Supporting Fairness and Originality in NIH Research Applications (external link). The notice primarily addresses the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the NIH application process, with a new policy becoming effective September 25, 2025.

This NIH notice decisively limits the use of AI in research applications and describes potential research misconduct risks of using AI:

“Researchers should be aware that using AI comes with its own risks. AI use may result in plagiarism, fabricated citations, or other kinds of research misconduct.”

Beyond this, NIH also states:

“If the detection of AI is identified post award, NIH may refer the matter to the Office of Research Integrity to determine whether there is research misconduct […].”

The Office of Research Integrity (ORI) is the federal agency that oversees research misconduct inquiries and investigations for any institutions that receive U.S. Public Health Service (PHS) funding – such as the University of Maine.

Lastly, the NIH notice also has implications for grants and submission limits. Please see the Office of Research Administration (ORA) for further guidance on that topic.

For more information on AI at UMaine, please see the UMaine AI website.

For more information on research misconduct, please see the Office of Research Compliance’s Research Misconduct website.