Paper mills

Photo showing several pieces of shredded colored paper.

Paper mills have begun to produce and sell large numbers of low-quality articles with false or plagiarized data. And, more recently, they are trying to entice journal editors by offering generous sums in exchange for the rapid acceptance of articles and by offering questionable editors and reviewers for special issues. Read More →

The influence of implicit biases on the adoption of DEIA principles

Collage made up of overlapping silhouettes of busts on colorful paper

Adherence to the principles of diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA) has been hampered by implicit biases, relating to implicit memory, which influences actions and decisions unconsciously. Progress involves institutional commitment, changing the culture, setting goals, and developing operational strategies. Read More →

Large Language Publishing [Originally published in the Upstream blog in January/2024]

Superimposed photograph of several books with the pages folded into an airplane shape on an infinite black background.

The New York Times ushered in the New Year with a lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft. OpenAI and its Microsoft patron had, according to the filing, stolen “millions of The Times’ copyrighted news articles, in-depth investigations, opinion pieces, reviews, how-to guides,” and more—all to train OpenAI’s LLMs. Read More →

Preprints in debate… six years later

Photo of data falling on a gray background.

Six years have passed since social science publishers began debating preprints. A look back shows that the “risks” and “promises” raised in that debate rested on an inadequate understanding of the nature of preprints in the field. The SciELO preprints server, however, ended up showing some unexpected benefits. Read More →

Does Artificial Intelligence have hallucinations?

Neural net completion for "artificial intelligence", as done by DALL-E mini.

AI applications have demonstrated impressive capabilities, including the generation of very fluent and convincing responses. However, LLMs, chatbots, and the like, are known for their ability to generate non-objective or nonsensical statements, more commonly known as “hallucinations.” Could it be that they are on drugs? Available in Spanish only. Read More →

How to reformulate scholarly publishing to face the peer review crisis

Scanned image of a group of purple bacteria on a black background.

The time between submission and publication of articles in the field of microbiology has been increasing in recent years. In addition, editors are having to invite more and more reviewers to identify those willing to evaluate manuscripts. What are the implications of this for peer review? Available in Portuguese only. Read More →

Can AI do reliable review scientific articles?

Image of two overlapping screens with words on a purple background generated by Google DeepMind

The cost of reviewing scientific publications, both in terms of money and time spent, is growing to unmanageable proportions with current methods. It is necessary to use AI as a trust system and thus free up human resources for research tasks. It would be important for SciELO to progressively incorporate AI modules for evaluation in its preprints server as a new advance and development of the technologies it manages. Available in Spanish only. Read More →

The scientific community is publishing (much) more and that’s a problem

Photograph showing four stacks of documents filling almost the entire space of the image. You can see the ceiling in the background.

A study posted on arXiv reports an exponential increase in the number of refereed scientific articles published in recent years, disproportionately outstripping the increase in the number of researchers. Scientific output per researcher as author, reviewer, and editor has increased dramatically, a phenomenon referred to as “pressure on scientific publication”, classified as a problem to be identified and resolved. Available in Portuguese only. Read More →

Research and scholarly communication, AI, and the upcoming legislation

AI risk pyramid: at the bottom of the pyramid is minimal risk, above is limited risk, followed by high risk and at the top of the pyramid is unacceptable risk.

Can AI be used to generate terrorist “papers”, spread deadly viruses, or learn how to make nuclear bombs at home? Is there legislation that can protect us? It looks like international regulation is on the way. Read More →

AI: How to detect chatbox texts and their plagiarism

Plagiarism diagram. The diagram consists of a drawing of three sheets of paper with text, one next to the other, followed below by a red arrow pointing down to a sheet of paper with text on which some passages are highlighted in red.

The ChatGPT-3 application is consulted on four topics under discussion for the production of academic texts acceptable to scientific journal editors. Each question is followed by the answer given by the OpenAI application itself and then by our evaluation, consulting recent sources published on the Internet. Finally, some (human) reflections are presented which, like all things, are subject to discussion or changes brought about by advances in technology. Read More →

ChatGPT and other AIs will transform all scientific research: initial reflections on uses and consequences – part 2

Image of an orange and pink coral-like formation, generated by Google DeepMind

In this second part of the essay, we seek to present some risks that arise particularly in the use of generative AI in the scientific field and in academic work. Although all the problems have not been fully mapped out, we have tried to offer initial reflections to support and encourage debate. Read More →

ChatGPT and other AIs will transform all scientific research: initial thoughts on uses and consequences – part 1

Image of a silhouette of a human head made up of colored threads generated by Google DeepMind

We discuss some possible consequences, risks, and paradoxes of the use of AIs in research, such as potential deterioration of research integrity, possible changes in the dynamics of knowledge production and center-periphery relations in the academic environment. We concluded by calling for an in-depth dialog on regulation and the creation of technologies adapted to our needs. Read More →

One of the great dilemmas for editors of scientific journals: to charge or not to charge, that is the question!

Photo of a dollar bill on a white table with seven coins on it.

The issue of charging publication fees has been haunting editors and authors. Contrary to what it may seem, there doesn’t seem to be any appreciation or recognition on the part of researchers in favor of journals that have made a great effort not to charge any fees and to make articles available free of charge. Read More →

SciELO as a space for thinking through scholarly communication

SciELO 25 Years logo

Understanding SciELO as a place to think through scholarly communication allows us to address new challenges for publishers, such as artificial intelligence. SciELO has an ethical component, a technological component and, at its core, a concern for the people who make up the scholarly communication community. Read More →

Revista DADOS creates special editorial office on replicability

Photograph of a hand holding a cassette tape against a blue background.

As of this year, Revista DADOS will have an editorial department specifically set up to deal with issues of the replicability of its articles. This commitment included a break with essayism in favor of a more systematic research view, which led to the publication of manuscripts strongly supported by empirical evidence. Read More →