The Role of GenAI in Peer Review - Balancing Innovation and Integrity

Speakers will discuss how GenAI is being integrated into peer review processes, examining both the benefits and challenges. They will consider AI's potential to enhance efficiency, improve accuracy, and reduce bias, while also discussing concerns related to over-reliance on technology, ethical considerations, and the need for transparency. Automated submission screening and desk review checks can swiftly filter out manuscripts that do not meet basic criteria; reviewer matching algorithms ensure that manuscripts are assigned to the most suitable reviewers. Workflow optimization tools further streamline the review process by managing deadlines, sending reminders, and tracking progress, however, generative AI (GenAI) tools are not yet widely (if at all?) integrated into publisher peer review workflows, and many publisher policies restrict reviewers from using publicly availably GenAI in the peer review process. These policies may overlook the benefits that a private and secure GenAI tool could bring to review efficiency and insight. To address these concerns, publishers should be considering the implementation of transparent, traceable, and secure GenAI workflows within the peer review system. Ensuring that GenAI’s role within peer review is fully documented and subject to human oversight will help maintain trust and accountability, whilst also bringing resource efficiencies. The session will close with a demo of the Enago Read AI Peer Review Assistant workspace which provides for AI supported contextually appropriate peer review analysis within a structured peer review form, with the benefits of literature summarization, co-pilot paper querying, reference analysis and related papers suggestions.

Publication Date

May 2025

47th Annual Meeting (2025)

45

Although every year in the scholarly publishing ecosystem is a balancing act of innovation, optimization, and value creation, 2025 is shaping up to be particularly challenging as the pace and scale of change is accelerating more than we’ve ever seen before. There is increasing pressure to provide value to and to meet the incredibly diverse needs of the global research community while maintaining financial health for our own organizations, living our values, and continuing to protect the scholarly record. With AI, open access, integrity, and mistrust frequently dominating the conversation, we are in the midst of an unprecedented shift in both our industry and society as a whole. As always, the SSP community continues to focus on bringing together academics, funders, librarians, publishers, service providers, technologists, researchers and countless others with a communal interest and stake in disseminating scholarly information. We look to the 47th Annual Meeting as an opportunity to continue this tradition and welcome all colleagues and community stakeholders.