In January 2024, the library research and consulting organization Ithaka S+R released a report on what they referred to as the “second digital transformation” of scholarly publishing. Touching on many of the themes and topics discussed in this module, the second digital transformation is framed as a revamping of the structures, workflows, incentives and outputs that characterized the print era. Noting that the first digital transformation occurred with the advent of the internet, the authors point out that the initial shift from print to digital did not immediately result in new modes of publishing, with scholars and publishers alike clinging to limiting conceptual models that privilege the peer reviewed article as the preeminent scholarly output and resist the democratization of knowledge discovery and dissemination.
In October 2024, Ithaka S+R released another report, entitled “A Third Transformation? Generative AI and Scholarly Publishing.” Among other things, this report notes that while at the time they were conducting interviews (in early 2023) for their earlier publication there was talk of generative AI, among participants: “it was just beginning to make its presence felt in academia and society” but since then, it has become “inescapable”. In other words, while the initial transformative effects of the shift to digital took twenty plus years to emerge, developments in AI have taken only a year to have a significant impact on academic publishing. Because of the rapid pace of change, academic publishing stakeholders are still struggling to make sense of the potential that AI has to transform publishing. First movers have begun to incorporate generative AI into their products and service offerings, while publishers and academic institutions are attempting to address the ethical considerations of AI through policy and procedure revisions.
At the time of writing this module (early 2025), it is not yet apparent how disruptive AI, and in particular generative AI, will be to the scholarly publishing ecosystem or the advancement of open access. However, we have begun to see the ways that publishers and authors are starting to navigate both the opportunities and challenges posed by AI.
Opportunities
- Streamlining of editorial processes and the deployment of AI for things like peer review and copy-editing
- AI-enhanced search and discovery tools like Elsevier’s Scopus AI and Consensus can help researchers find and synthesize information
- New revenue streams, as publishers can license their intellectual property for AI training
Challenges
- The use of AI to manipulate the publishing process, including generating fake data and manuscripts or manipulated images
- Increases in the scope and scale of predatory practices such as “paper mills”
- “Enshittification” of the scholarly record and threats to scientific integrity
Reflection
What do you think? – Are you optimistic or pessimistic about the potential for generative AI to transform academic publishing?
Dig Deeper
To learn more about the impacts of AI on academic publishing, review:
ITHAKA S&R. (2024). A Third Transformation: Generative AI and Scholarly Publishing
Image Credit: A Third Transformation: Generative AI and Scholarly Publishing by ITHAKA S+R. Licensed under CC BY-NC.
