Call for Papers: Technology in Scientific Publishing
Emerging technologies—most prominently artificial intelligence (AI)—are transforming how researchers and scientists conduct, communicate, and disseminate their work. Authors are increasingly turning to large language models, vision models, or other AI-assisted tools to delegate various tasks such as manuscript drafting, literature synthesis, data analysis, and more. Even agentic AI workflows are increasingly available, whether self-made or offered as a service from commercial entities. These developments raise critical questions about authorship, transparency, and the responsible use of technology across the research life cycle. For example, the tendencies of certain AI tools toward sycophancy, hallucination, or other limitations add complexity to the reliability of these technologies and the ability to reproduce these works. Authorial agency and voice can also be lost or, at minimum, homogenized as a result of off-loading scientific tasks to technology.
Publishers, editors, and peer reviewers are similarly navigating this shifting technological landscape. To keep pace with the growing use of AI-assisted tools by authors, the publishing industry is increasingly compelled to adopt similar technologies, replacing or augmenting tasks traditionally performed by humans. Technological changes bring both opportunities for greater efficiency and transparency, and significant risks to the fairness, integrity, and trustworthiness of the peer-review process. Professional organizations and consortia in publishing and research integrity are also seeking to unify standards and are engaging in product development across numerous disciplines and publishing ecosystems.
Finally, governance frameworks, policies, and technological standards that support ethical publishing practices and the responsible conduct of research are essential as scientific discovery and advancement incorporate new technologies and AI. Persistent identifier infrastructures, metadata standards, and AI-based integrity monitoring systems are a few examples of tools under further development to strengthen the scholarly publishing ecosystem.
JMIR Metascience and Research Integrity invites original research, evidence-based viewpoints and policy papers, systematic or scoping reviews, and tutorials that advance our knowledge and understanding of emerging technologies in research and scholarly publishing. We particularly welcome submissions that offer evidence-based or evaluated solutions that tackle the ethical risks and integrity challenges posed by new technologies. Multisector collaborative works are also of special interest for this e-collection.
Topics of Interest
- Submissions to this call for papers may explore, but are not limited to, the following topics:
- Responsible technological approaches and opportunities for AI tools in the scientific research life cycle
- Evaluations of technology applications, AI, or agentic AI workflows in the tasks of scientific research and scholarly publishing
- Ethical implications, transparency, and disclosure norms for AI-assisted research, reporting, and writing
- Bias, fairness, and equity considerations in the use of AI-driven tools across the research life cycle, including effects on underrepresented or underresourced research communities
- AI-based tools in support of the peer-review and publishing life cycle, across a diversity of publishing models
- Technology and infrastructure to support open peer-review platforms, preprint servers, and postpublication review
- Governance frameworks and policy recommendations for responsible AI use in research and publishing workflows
- Industry, governmental, and multisector collaborative initiatives to develop technology standards and best practices for ethical publishing
- Regulatory and legal frameworks governing the use of AI and emerging technologies in research and publishing
- Climate and social responsibility considerations related to the development and adoption of AI-driven publishing technologies
How to Submit
Please submit to JMIR Metascience and Research Integrity by selecting “Technology in Scientific Publishing” from the “Section” drop-down list during submission. See the articles How do I submit to a theme issue? and Instructions for Authors in our Knowledge Base for more information.
Submission Guidelines
All submissions will undergo a rigorous peer-review process. Accepted articles will be published as part of the “Technology in Scientific Publishing” e-collection.
All peer-reviewed articles will be made immediately and permanently open access.
Articles will be made immediately available in JMIR Preprints (with a DOI) if authors select this option at submission.