Industry Insights

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Howdy peeps,

Hope rain Gods ⛈️ have granted respite to all our readers who had been roasting in the🔥

We are back from our summer hiatus 🏖️ to deep dive into licensing 🪪

In the last newsletter, we covered the basics: key terms, critical questions, & a readiness scorecard to get you started.

Now, let’s look at what’s actually happening at the industry level

Licensing Without Supporting Infrastructure

Licensing content is only part of the puzzle. Publishers also need ways for AI systems to discover, access, cite, & use trusted content.

Check out these resources to take the next steps:

TollBit helps publishers monitor AI traffic, expose agent-ready content, manage machine-readable licenses & monetize AI access

Microsoft Publisher Content Marketplace (PCM) is building a marketplace where publishers can define licensing terms, track usage & manage AI licensing at scale

Really Simple Licensing (RSL) is an emerging framework for embedding machine-readable licensing directly into websitesmaking it easier for AI systems to understand what content they can ✅ and can’t use ⛔

🤖 AI Agent: Now What’s That?

Think AI that goes beyond answering questions. AI that can search, retrieve licensed content, compare papers, use tools & complete tasks on your behalf

👇🏽Below are some resources from some publishers to get started

Agentic AI 101: Jisc’s Agentic AI Primer & Elsevier’s Guide to Agentic AI

From Wiley’s Wheelhouse: Wiley’s Agent Knowledge Base for Life Sciences gives AI agents full-text access to trusted, peer-reviewed life sciences & pharma content instead of relying on abstracts alone, making it a good example of what agent-ready publishing looks like. Wiley AI Rights shows how publishers are licensing peer-reviewed content for AI training, retrieval, & agentic workflows.

As we move from SEO (Search Engine Optimization) to GEO (Generative Engine Optimization), ask the following questions:

• Can an agent discover our content?

• Can it retrieve licensed content?

• Does it know what it’s allowed to do?

• Can it cite the original source?

• Can we measure and monetize its usage?

These questions are quickly becoming more important than SEO

💰 Show Me The Money 💰

Beyond one-off AI licensing deals, now entire AI licensing marketplaces are emerging

ITHAKA Generative AI Licensing Tracker remains one of the best places to monitor new agreements

The Wall Street Journal looks at how content marketplaces could reshape AI licensing.

Think Beyond Training Models

Shift your focus from training models to licensed retrieval.

Instead of selling yesterday’s content once 💵, publishers could license today’s content many more times through Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), AI agents & future research assistants.

That means investing in:

• Structured content

• Rights metadata

• APIs

• MCP servers

• Machine-readable licenses

• Provenance

• Attribution

Keep An Eye On...

• Microsoft Publisher Content Marketplace (PCM)

• AI content marketplaces

• Agent-ready publishing infrastructure

• Expansion of the ITHAKA licensing tracker

Final thought

Instead of asking “Who should we license our content to?,” ask “How do we make our content indispensable to AI agents?”

The publishers that win won’t necessarily have the biggest licensing deals. They’ll have content that’s easy for AI agents🤖 to discover🔍, trust, cite, license, & use responsibly.

Feedback Corner

Your thoughts & comments welcomed: augmentscholpub@gmail.com

Until next newsletter,

Chhavi Chauhan and Chirag Jay Patel

About the Authors

Dr. Chhavi Chauhan is a science enthusiast, a former biomedical researcher who now serves as the Executive Officer of Open Pathology Education Network. She is the Founder & President of Samast AI, a renowned AI Ethicist, a serial volunteer, & serves on the Boards for multiple mission-driven organizations. Besides work, she enjoys playing board games, hiking, & working in her yard.

Chirag “Jay” Patel is a Jack of all trades, master of none. He has always been a salesperson & works for Cactus Communications, is a SDG Publishers Compact Fellow & volunteers for SSP & ISMPP. His interests lie at the crossroads of AI research integrity, science communication, & Sustainable Development Goals. When he is not working, he likes to goof around with his kids, read, listen to a podcast, spend time in the garden, or go for a walk.

Both authors are thought leaders, renowned public speakers, & invited blog writers.

Can’t Have Enough of Us!

➡️ Join SSP’s AI Community of Interest (AI CoIN) that we co-facilitate with >300 members

➡️ Join us at the ISMTE Annual Meeting 2026 where we co-moderate the opening plenary: “Humanizing Workflows in the Age of AI” on July 22nd at 9:00 AM - 10:00 AM

➡️ Join Chhavi at the ISMTE Annual Meeting 2026 where she will moderate the session “Leveraging social media platforms for impactful education, publishing, and knowledge dissemination” on July 22nd at 3:55 - 4.40 PM

➡️ Join Jay at the ISMTE Annual Meeting 2026 where he will moderate the session “Discovery and Dissemination, user behavior changes, mis/disinformation, SEO vs AI search” on July 24th at 9:00 AM - 10:00 AM

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Howdy peeps,

👰🏽 You know that copyright is a perplexing issue if the season finale of Bridgerton ends on that anticipatory note! Yes, the age old problem of copyright & licensing is only getting messier and more complex with every passing day ©️

🐘 How do you eat an elephant? Well, one bite at a time 😆

➡️ So, here is our simplified 5-part series to help you distil all complex matters related to copyright & licensing 🙌🏽

Caption: An infographic generated using Chat GPT to highlight some of the key components in a checklist format for scholarly publishing professionals to navigate licensing & copyright while leveraging AI.

🗣️ As much as we hate jargon, it is always good to get behind the terminology of a domain to understand it to simplify for others 🎯 Check out this live glossary to help navigate the licensing and copyright space in the age of AI, & feel free to add anything that you think others can benefit from further 🪜

➡️ Now that you are proficient in the domain 😎 let’s take you to the list of pertinent questions sorted by stakeholders & strategies📃 you should be thinking about as you navigate the emerging landscape of licensing agreements yourself 🔍. Do add any questions or comments for any or all stakeholders to help us keep updating this resource 🙏🏽

😪 Well, a long list of questions can be overwhelming, so we grouped key concerns in an easy to review scorecard to check your organization’s licensing readiness as well as to evaluate the gaps in your current strategy ✅

🎬 To cue you in on the action, we deemed it appropriate to focus our next newsletter on industry insights. Stay tuned!.

➡️ Feedback Corner

Your thoughts & comments welcomed: augmentscholpub@gmail.com; the newsletter was:

Until next newsletter,

Chhavi Chauhan and Chirag Jay Patel

➡️ About the Authors

Dr. Chhavi Chauhan is a science enthusiast, a former biomedical researcher who now serves as the Executive Officer of Open Pathology Education Network. She is the Founder & President of Samast AI, a renowned AI Ethicist, a serial volunteer, & serves on the Boards for multiple mission-driven organizations. Besides work, she enjoys playing board games, hiking, & working in her yard.

Chirag “Jay” Patel is a Jack of all trades, master of none. He has always been a salesperson & works for Cactus Communications, is a SDG Publishers Compact Fellow & volunteers for SSP & ISMPP. His interests lie at the crossroads of AI research integrity, science communication, & Sustainable Development Goals. When he is not working, he likes to goof around with his kids, read, listen to a podcast, spend time in the garden, or go for a walk.

Both authors are thought leaders, renowned public speakers, & invited blog writers.

➡️ Can’t Have Enough of Us!

➡️ Join SSP’s AI Community of Interest (AI CoIN) that we co-facilitate with >200 members

➡️ Join Chhavi on the SSP webinar on “How AI is transforming research: From idea to impact” on April 15th, 11 AM ET

➡️ Join Chhavi and Jay at the CSE Annual Meeting in Durham as they talk about “Confronting bias where it is: fostering diversity across the physical geographies and digital platforms of peer review” on May 4th, 4.00 - 5.00 PM ET

➡️ Join Chhavi at the CSE Annual Meeting in Durham for the closing plenary discussion on “Tackling New Age Dilemmas for Sustainable Futures in Scholarly Publishing” on May 5th, 3.45 - 5.00 PM ET

➡️Join Jay at the ISMPP meeting in Washington DC, he is facilitating and speaking during the Engagement with Publishers’ Forum: AI in Medical Publishing on April 20, 8:30 – 12:00 pm ET

➡️ Join Jay at the SCE Annual Meeting in Durham for Lightning Talks: AI in the Wild: What Worked, What Didn’t on May 4th, 10:30 – 12:00 PM ET

➡️Jay is also attending the STM 2-day US Annual Conference 2026 in Washington DC on April 22–23, 2026

If you enjoy reading the newsletter, sign up or share with someone who may be interested!

Howdy peeps,

❄ And just like that January is about to wrap ❄

🤖 We would be remiss if we did not share a glimpse of what the industry is thinking about what all AI can and cannot achieve in 2026 🤖

🔮 We thought of capturing the essence of AI predictions from various sources like the SSP’s Pulse Check Report (563 respondents), predictions made by the trade publishing community (559 respondents), scholarly industry partners SilverChair & Hum, & journals like Nature 🔮

📈 Needless to say, we are indeed sitting at an inflection point with AI adoption still gaining momentum 💨, the preparedness gap being ever so wide 💔, the barriers to trust being the highest priority amongst the scholarly publishing community ⚖, folks focusing on improving workflow efficiencies using AI 🎯, all this while concerns for responsible adoption sky rocket 🚀

⚙ Add into this mix, a few tech predictions and predictions of the tech trends, and the picture shifts towards a “pragmatic revolution” 😎

💻 In our own capacity, & leveraging our own networks, we conducted a small survey to capture the predictions for 2026 within the scholarly publishing domain. Though the n is small, the representation was quite large & captured the biggest barriers to AI adoption 🚧, the most used AI tools 📈, top AI priorities 💡, some tools that stand out 🛠, and, of course, the predictions for 2026 🔮

➡️ Feedback Corner

Your thoughts & comments welcomed: augmentscholpub@gmail.com; the newsletter was:

Until next newsletter,

Chhavi Chauhan and Chirag Jay Patel

➡️ About the Authors

Dr. Chhavi Chauhan is a science enthusiast, a former biomedical researcher who now serves as the Executive Director of Open Pathology Education Network. She is the Founder & President of Samast AI, a renowned AI Ethicist, a serial volunteer, & serves on the Boards for multiple mission-driven organizations. Besides work, she enjoys playing board games, hiking, & working in her yard.

Chirag “Jay” Patel is a Jack of all trades, master of none. He has always been a salesperson & works for Cactus Communications, is a SDG Publishers Compact Fellow & volunteers for SSP & ISMPP. His interests lie at the crossroads of AI research integrity, science communication, & Sustainable Development Goals. When he is not working, he likes to goof around with his kids, read, listen to a podcast, spend time in the garden, or go for a walk.

Both authors are thought leaders, renowned public speakers, & invited blog writers.

➡️ Can’t Have Enough of Us!

➡️ Join SSP’s AI Community of Interest (AI CoIN) that we co-facilitate with >275 members

➡️ Join ISMTE’s Virtual AI Workshop series in 2026! Register here: https://www.ismte.org/events/EventDetails.aspx?id=2011206&group=

Howdy peeps,

💫 Yes, it’s been a while, a busy while of attending many virtual & in-person events in the scholarly publishing domain with innumerable discussions on, oh yes, AI 🤖

And quite unsurprisingly, during this time, the tunes have changed & the perceptions shifted 😎

➡️ As a reminder, we discussed how folks in our domain felt about the use of AI in our past newsletter, collecting thoughts from you all at the beginning of the year

➡️ Given the busyness of folks with fast shifting landscapes where everyone is scrambling on all fronts (business (shifting values & priorities) & personal (changes to our safe spaces) & physical (back to work policies) & emotional (well, don’t even get one started!), not surprisingly, we received 1/3rd the responses. However, the shift is evident 👇🏽

Below are the key highlights & some reported shifts from our most recent survey “Are We There Yet? AI’s Real Impact on Scholarly Publishing”.

We had received 12 responses

📢 Given the shift from “whether or not Gen AI” to “how to” use, leverage, monetize content with Gen AI, we are surveying the industry to capture the newest trends. Please take this 5-minute survey anonymously to add your insights in the collective knowledge base: https://forms.gle/DKZjhxfjvMFK3miT6

➡️ Feedback Corner

Your thoughts & comments welcomed: augmentscholpub@gmail.com; the newsletter was:

Until next newsletter,

Chhavi Chauhan and Chirag Jay Patel

➡️ About the Authors

Dr. Chhavi Chauhan is a science enthusiast, a former biomedical researcher who now serves as the Executive Officer of Open Pathology Education Network. She is the Founder & President of Samast AI, a renowned AI Ethicist, a serial volunteer, & serves on the Boards for multiple mission-driven organizations. Besides work, she enjoys playing board games, hiking, & working in her yard.

Chirag “Jay” Patel is a Jack of all trades, master of none. He has always been a salesperson & works for Cactus Communications, is a SDG Publishers Compact Fellow & volunteers for SSP & ISMPP. His interests lie at the crossroads of AI research integrity, science communication, & Sustainable Development Goals. When he is not working, he likes to goof around with his kids, read, listen to a podcast, spend time in the garden, or go for a walk.

Both authors are thought leaders, renowned public speakers, & invited blog writers.

➡️ Can’t Have Enough of Us!

➡️ Join SSP’s AI Community of Interest (AI CoIN) that we co-facilitate with >300 members

➡️ Be on the look-out for announcements for our ISMTE Virtual AI Workshop series in 2026!

📢 We are back with a vengeance & happy to share some AI predictions 🔮 that you shared earlier this year!

➡️ Before we share the results, we wanted you to know that we are running yet another survey to gauge how things are currently evolving. Hope you take a few minutes to respond: Are We There Yet? AI’s Real Impact on Scholarly Publishing (Mid-2025 Survey)

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🙌🏽 We received 34 responses to our original survey, thanks to all those who responded 🙏🏽

🎯 Interestingly, every respondent to the survey felt that AI will have an impact on scholarly publishing in 2025, with 56% believing AI will have a significant or transformative Impact.

➡️ The top 3 areas where respondents anticipate the most significant influence from AI in 2025 are:

1. Content Creation

2. Discoverability & Access

3. A tie between Peer Review & Productions & Workflow Efficiency

📢 What are the biggest opportunities that AI presents for scholarly publishing? 28 responses

📢 What are the biggest challenges or concerns that the scholarly publishing industry needs to address regarding the integration of AI? 29 responses

📢 Top 3 skills or areas of expertise most crucial for publications professionals to work with & manage AI are:

1. Understanding of AI Ethics & Bias

2. Change Management & Process Optimization

3. Technical Literacy (understanding AI concepts, APIs, etc.)

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📢 Straight from the Expert’s Mouth

“The speed of adoption is accelerating. There are still plenty of sceptics (as there should be) but we have passed the point where AI is seen as pure hype, & now publishers are seeing the benefits of adopting it, or at least the potential benefits of adopting it & beginning those discussions. One area I've been surprised by is adoption in the peer review space. My view is that this is a fantastic use case but there would be a slow adaptation. However the number of pilots I've heard about is really positive, indicating more of a demand than cynically I might have expected. It'll be interesting to see how many of these translate into live workflows & then put pressure on other publishers to accelerate adoption. After all, reviewers are already using AI for peer review & publishers need to both catch up & provide better tools.

Build vs Buy: The AI boom is raising interesting questions in the classic build vs buy question. The technology has allowed for a rapid growth in startups delivering potential issues to long standing issues. However the moat for these solutions is slight. This is visible in the research integrity space where start ups are increasingly competing with larger organizations who prefer to build their own solutions (vertically integrate) than partner with startups. I think this will extend to increasing numbers of publishing organizations, in terms of the ability to build their own products. It might not just be the larger publishers (Springer/Nature) who are able to do this, especially as the need for large engineering teams may decline.

…, there is definitely a growing school of thought that AI will quickly take over most coding tasks. The evidence is mounting with things like the acquisition of Windsurf & the 3k jobs eliminated at Microsoft (although this was a mix of management & engineering). IF (& it is a big if) AI takes on most coding, then the advantage of big engineering teams will decline. Where the rub will be is the skill set around managing engineering teams, with things like product, UX, customer engagement etc. Lots of publishers have already lost these skillsets with outsourcing publishing operations/ platforms, so even if AI can do all the engineering, they may (will?) not have the structure to take advantage of that.” – Chris Reid, Independent Consultant

“I think the most notable shift in the first part of this year has been publisher interest in AI-assisted peer review. A year ago I don’t think publishers were ready to talk about this, but at SSP this year, Hum’s Alchemist Review tool was one of the most discussed & sought-after new products. There are some fields that will be slow (or never) adopters of AI-assisted review, but fields that are getting hit hard by large volumes of low quality papers would greatly benefit from a tool to augment human knowledge with artificial intelligence. I think 2026 will see rapid adoption of these tools by publishers in specific research areas.” – Gwen Weerts, SPIE Journals Manager

➡️ Feedback Corner

Your thoughts & comments welcomed: augmentscholpub@gmail.com; the newsletter was:

Until next newsletter,

Chhavi Chauhan and Chirag Jay Patel

➡️ About the Authors

Dr. Chhavi Chauhan is a science enthusiast, a former biomedical researcher who now works for the American Society for Investigative Pathology. She is the Founder & President of Samast AI, a renowned AI Ethicist, a serial volunteer, & serves on the Boards for multiple mission-driven organizations. Besides work, she enjoys playing board games, hiking, & working in her yard.

Chirag “Jay” Patel is a Jack of all trades, master of none. He has always been a salesperson & works for Cactus Communications, is a SDG Publishers Compact Fellow & volunteers for SSP & ISMPP. His interests lie at the crossroads of AI research integrity, science communication, & Sustainable Development Goals. When he is not working, he likes to goof around with his kids, read, listen to a podcast, spend time in the garden, or go for a walk.

Both authors are thought leaders, renowned public speakers, & invited blog writers.

➡️ Can’t Have Enough of Us!

➡️ Join SSP’s AI Community of Interest (AI CoIN) that we co-facilitate with >250 members

🗓️ Authors’ Upcoming Speaking Engagements & Updates:

➡️ Co-facilitators: AI Workshop at ISMTE, Montreal, Canada on August 5th

Chhavi

➡️ Joined the Board of Directors for the Wake Tech Foundation, term starts July 1st, 2025

➡️ Panelist: From Expertise to Enterprise: Elevating Your Side Hustle: crafting a career from your calling at ISMTE, Montreal, Canada on August 8th

➡️ Featured in the Blockchain Magazine: https://lnkd.in/g5XXKaaU

Jay

➡️ Co-facilitators: AI Workshop at ISMTE, Montreal, Canada on August 5th

➡️ Panelist: That Journal Article Published. Now What? at ISMTE, Montreal, Canada on August 6th

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Howdy peeps,

🫂Yes, we have missed you too!

💫 And, yes, this is only the 2nd newsletter we have published this year as we want to deliberate much before “dishing out content” 😉

🤔 Market consolidation has been on the top of our minds for a while, as for many of you, & that’s what we deliberate on in this issue

💫 We welcome your thoughts on the market consolidation trends & their impact on us & our industry: here is the link to a quick Google form survey about Market Consolidation

💪🏽 For some, market consolidation may be a power play — a need to safely eliminate competition & acquire more data, but for many others it may be a collaborative way forward to advance an industry 📈

💫 Big tech companies like Amazon, Google, Apple, & Meta have a long list of acquisitions, which may continue to grow at a much faster rate than ~5 deals/year, as previously reported

👉🏽 Our industry has been making its own strides towards market consolidation for a while

😶 The scholarly publishing world is shrinking—at least when it comes to who’s in control

⁉️ Over the last two decades, the top five publishers have grown their market share from 39% to a staggering 61%, say what⁉️ Today, ten publishers control 75% of all published journal articles

💪🏽 Big players are buying up not just journals, but research tools too—think Mendeley, SSRN, Interfolio💡

➿ It’s vertical integration across the entire research lifecycle ➿

➡️ Two of the greatest consolidators in our industry are Elsevier & Wiley. Both have grown larger by acquiring all manners of smaller firms from publishers to technology companies to manuscript submission systems & editorial service providers. Undoubtedly, they have gained a lot of power & influence over scholarly publishing. Below are two illustrations of how Elsevier & Wiley have grown their footprint & reach through acquisitions (Chen et al https://books.openedition.org/oep/9068?lang=en)

Elsevier Presence Throughout the Research Lifecycle

https://books.openedition.org/oep/9068?lang=en

Wiley Presence Throughout the Lifecycle

https://books.openedition.org/oep/9068?lang=en

📢 As AI advancements continue to reshape scholarly communication, influencing our engagement with scholarship & its related practices, we anticipate a lot more market consolidation in 2025 than in 2024, perhaps accompanied with unavoidable layoffs 😔

➿Interestingly, the rise of AI has spurred a new kind of merger: pairings between "data-centric" service providers and traditional "scholarly publishing" vendors. We've already seen this with Silverchair's acquisition of ScholarOne & Molecular Connections' purchase of Morressier& KnowledgeWorks Global’s acquisition of Origin Editorial, highlighting the growing importance of data in the future of scholarly publishing. It is a matter of time (& perhaps 💸) before Technica Editorial Services becomes a part of a bigger enterprise ⌛

⬇️ Below are some meat on some recent acquisitions in our industry:

➿ Lumina Datamatics & TNQTech: Lumina acquired TNQTech to complement AI capabilities, which will allow Lumina to “efficiently serve scholarly & commercial publishers as well as learned societies, ensuring high-quality, swift service delivery.”

➿ Sage & Mary Ann Liebert: Sage, one of the largest publishers with >1100 journals, got bigger with the acquisition of Mary Ann Liebert (MAL). Before this acquisition, Sage acquired a few small tech startups like Lean Library & SciWheel, & integrated these solutions in Technology from Sage.

➿ Molecular Connections Buys Morressier: Molecular Connections (MC) acquired Morressier to expand its role in research publishing infrastructure. Morressier brings tools for research integrity & editorial workflows. The deal gives MC a platform to grow its services and reach more publishers. Morressier will stay independent & continue serving its customers, while its CEO takes on a new global sales role.

➿ Molecular Connections Acquires Editorial Office Ltd: MC also acquired Editorial Office Ltd (EOL), a UK-based company known for managing peer review & editorial workflows. This move combines MC’s tech and global expertise with EOL’s hands-on publishing support. Together, they aim to offer faster, more efficient, & scalable services for journal editors & publishers. The deal follows MC’s recent purchase of Morressier, strengthening its position in end-to-end editorial solutions.

➿KnowledgeWorks Global Ltd. (KGL), a CJK Group Company, Acquires Origin Editorial: KGL acquired Origin Editorial, a U.S.-based provider of peer review & publishing support services. Origin brings a strong team & experience across the full publishing workflow. Its services will be integrated with KGL’s global editorial group to expand capabilities & scale. The deal strengthens KGL’s position in peer review & editorial management, aiming to deliver broader, more efficient support to publishers & journals globally.

➿ Silverchair Acquires ScholarOne from Clarivate: Silverchair acquired ScholarOne from Clarivate, bringing submission & peer review systems used by thousands of journals under its wing. This deal makes Silverchair a rare, fully independent, end-to-end tech partner for scholarly publishers. Backed by recent investments, Silverchair plans to enhance ScholarOne with AI & deeper integration across the publishing workflow, from submission to hosting. ScholarOne’s team & services will continue under Silverchair, aiming to boost efficiency & innovation for the global research community.

For a deeper dive on the topic of market consolidation in scholarly publishing, we encourage you to explore the following resources:

➡️ David Crotty’s The Scholarly Kitchen post Quantifying Consolidation in the Scholarly Journals Market

➡️ Caroline Winter’s OSPO post Market Consolidation and Scholarly Communications

➡️ CHOICE webinar on Navigating Humanities and Social Sciences Consolidation in Scholarly Publishing

➡️ Samuel Moore’s blog post What’s so bad about consolidation in academic publishing?

➡️ Dan Pollock & Heather Staines’ blog on News & Views: Publishers and Market Consolidation – Part 1 & 2

📢 Lastly, if you made it this far, please don’t forget to take this quick Google form survey on market consolidation 🙏🏽

➡️ Feedback Corner

Your thoughts & comments welcomed: augmentscholpub@gmail.com; the newsletter was:

Until next newsletter,

Chhavi Chauhan and Chirag Jay Patel

➡️ About the Authors

Dr. Chhavi Chauhan is a science enthusiast, a former biomedical researcher who now works for the American Society for Investigative Pathology. She is the Founder & President of Samast AI, a renowned AI Ethicist, a serial volunteer, & serves on the Boards for multiple mission-driven organizations. Besides work, she enjoys playing board games, hiking, & working in her yard.

Chirag “Jay” Patel is a Jack of all trades, master of none. He has always been a salesperson & works for Cactus Communications, is a SDG Publishers Compact Fellow & volunteers for SSP & ISMPP. His interests lie at the crossroads of AI research integrity, science communication, & Sustainable Development Goals. When he is not working, he likes to goof around with his kids, read, listen to a podcast, spend time in the garden, or go for a walk.

Both authors are thought leaders, renowned public speakers, & invited blog writers.

➡️ Can’t Have Enough of Us!

➡️ Join SSP’s AI Community of Interest (AI CoIN) that we co-facilitate with >200 members

🗓️ Authors’ Upcoming Speaking Engagements & Updates:

Chhavi

➡️ Panelist: Building Trust Through Ethical Innovation & Patient Partnership at ESDIP DPA Companion Meeting, June 25, Barcelona, Spain

➡️ Joined the Board of Directors for the Wake Tech Foundation, term starts July 1st, 2025

Santosh Kumar

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“We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.”

― Martin Luther King, Jr.

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Welcome, readers,

Hope your first few weeks of 2025 were uneventful!

🥏 January came & flew by as we tried to grapple with the evolving AI regulation scene ⛔✅, AI dominance race 🤖🙄 & the emerging scientific research landscape 💥📉 with an endless flurry of Executive Orders (high-level overview) coming from the White House💥📝 It makes us wonder if like us, 2025 has been off to a tumultuous start for many of you 🚧 & if so, we whole-heartedly empathize 🧡

➡️ Shifting Support

💣 One of the recent Executive Orders that may impact our industry directly is the shift (decrease - significant in many cases) 📉 in NIH-supported funding 💰 to research institutions that may impact the scientific output & hence the volume/quality of content that distils through the scholarly publishing industry.

Update: Halt on Trump administration’s cuts to NIH research payments expanded nationwide The pause, which is to remain in place until otherwise ordered by the court, comes after Kelley granted another temporary restraining order earlier Monday in response to a lawsuit filed by attorneys general from 22 states. That pause only applied to those specific states, meaning that the NIH policy change was still in effect in the rest of the country.

➡️ ICYMI: Guidelines, what guidelines?

💯 If you are struggling with keeping up with the evolving AI guidelines in scientific publishing, you may want to read Avi Staiman’s take on building a risk-based framework for AI guidelines in publishing in CSE’s Science Editor. In this piece, Avi shares many great recommendations to guide you in building a risk management framework, understanding the role of education & training, & exploring global partnerships for continued success.

➡️ Struggling how to use Gen AI in Science – well, now you know!

🌟 The Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) released its public-facing Recommendations for Generative AI in the Biological and Biomedical Sciences collated by its Gen AI Task Force over the course of 2024. These recommendations focus on 5 key themes: Policy & Regulation, Scientific Integrity & Intellectual Property, Data Privacy & Security, Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, & Inclusion, & Workforce Impact, Training, & Education.

➡️ Ethically integrate AI videos in your work - tell me more!

📽️ Adobe has released a new Firefly video model in beta that it claims is the first safe generative AI video model. Adobe says it has spent a lot of money to license and build its video model so you don’t have to worry about brand logos or not safe for work (NSFW) content. The big questions are how much work done by professionals will be automated and how long can Adobe walk this fine line?

➡️Same same but different different

📢 New models on the block, but similar challenges with bias, safety, & source reliability

Deepseek V3 and R1 are open-weight AI models developed in China. V3 excels in reasoning, coding, & multilingual tasks, while R1 integrates retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) for more accurate responses. However, both operate under China’s strict regulations, raising concerns about censorship.

Qwen 2.5 Max developed by Alibaba, is a high-performing open-weight AI model with strong capabilities in reasoning, coding, and multilingual tasks. While it pushes the boundaries of open AI, its development within China’s regulatory framework raises questions about censorship & content limitations.

OpenAI o3-mini aims to match O1-mini's speed and cost while offering better performance on science, math, & coding tasks. The model runs on OpenAI's closed architecture, making it hard to independently verify its performance or safety.

OpenAI Deep Research is a high-level AI model designed for deep, specialized tasks, including advanced reasoning, scientific research, & data analysis. It’s built to support cutting-edge research across various domains but is not open-source, meaning access & customization are limited.

Gemini 2.0 Flash is a strong AI model that handles tasks like reasoning, coding, & different languages well. While it’s not open-source, meaning less transparency, it’s widely used across Google’s platforms.

Gemini Deep Research is built for tackling complex research questions. It’s not open-source, so access is limited, but it’s designed to assist with advanced problem-solving.

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➡️ Feedback Corner

Your thoughts & comments welcomed: augmentscholpub@gmail.com; the newsletter was:

Until next newsletter,

Chhavi Chauhan and Chirag Jay Patel

➡️ About the Authors

Dr. Chhavi Chauhan is a science enthusiast, a former biomedical researcher who now works for the American Society for Investigative Pathology. She is the Founder & President of Samast AI, a renowned AI Ethicist, a serial volunteer, & serves on the Boards for multiple mission-driven organizations. Besides work, she enjoys playing board games, hiking, & working in her yard.

Chirag “Jay” Patel is a Jack of all trades, master of none. He has always been a salesperson & works for Cactus Communications, is a SDG Publishers Compact Fellow & volunteers for SSP & ISMPP. His interests lie at the crossroads of AI research integrity, science communication, & Sustainable Development Goals. When he is not working, he likes to goof around with his kids, read, listen to a podcast, spend time in the garden, or go for a walk.

Both authors are thought leaders, renowned public speakers, & invited blog writers.

➡️ Can’t Have Enough of Us!

➡️ Join SSP’s AI Community of Interest (AI CoIN) that we co-facilitate with >200 members

🗓️ Authors’ Recent & Upcoming Speaking Engagements & Updates:

Chhavi

➡️ AI Faculty: CSE Virtual DEIA Short Course

➡️ Panelist: “What Does AI Mean for Journals?” session at National Academy of Sciences Journal Summit in Washington D.C.

Jay

➡️ Panelist: Ethics in Publishing Panel APS Global Physics Summit in Anaheim, CA

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“The ending of a year is like closing a window. Even though it is shut, fresh light will still shine through. Take a moment to reflect and look back, but only for an instant, because new possibilities are just over the horizon. With the ending of a year, it's time to think of the new possibilities in the future.”

Welcome, readers,

Amazon/AWS is primed (pun intended 😉) to knock the competition out in 2025 with its latest announcements at AWS re:Invent 2024; however, Google is getting ready to fire back with its suite of new “agentic” offerings. In the scholarly publishing industry the needed change is coming by slowly, though market consolidation may be picking steam (stay tuned for our opening newsletter for 2025!)

To wrap this year, we begin by thanking YOU for your continued support as we stand at 271 subscribers🙏🏽 📈🥳

➡️ Stats

➡️ From around the globe 🌍

📢 with >5,250 views in the past year

➡️ Future of work & persistent concerns surrounding copyright - globally!

We kick started 2024 by discussing the future of work in the age of AI with mass lay-offs in all major sectors & concerns surrounding job displacement in our own industry. The year followed with major discussions & subsequent lawsuits regarding copyright concerns with all key players compelling us to explore the murky world of copyright.

➡️ Embracing Gen AI - the new kid on the block!

As the discussions around the use of generative AI (Gen AI) synthesized content in scientific publishing deepened, we assessed the good, the bad, & the ugly as the authors, editors, publishers, & vendors embrace gen AI in their workflows.

➡️ Guidelines - say what?

One major topic on everyone’s mind this year has been the lack of defined AI policies for authors, editors, & publishers, so we made a serious effort to apprise our readers of the evolving world of AI policies. However, the discussions continue around collaborating at a global scale to define & implement minimally acceptable policies to streamline efforts without overburdening the users.

➡️Survival of the fittest, or the most upskilled?

Lastly, but most importantly, we felt the need to focus on a topic that many are not critically thinking about yet 🤦🏽‍♀️Hence, we devoted a 3-part series on upskilling, focusing on individuals, organizations, metrics, & market insights from industry experts. These newsletters featured a couple of surveys & highlighted sentiments captured from 73 respondents & voices from industry experts.

➡️ Rest, rejoice & return!

As we wrap up for the holidays, we hope you all cozy up ❄️ & spend some quality time doing what your hearts desire 🧡 with folks you love 😍

We look forward to seeing you next year 💫 with some MAJOR updates on market consolidations 🤑

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➡️ Feedback Corner

Your thoughts & comments welcomed: augmentscholpub@gmail.com; the newsletter was:

Until next newsletter,

Chhavi Chauhan and Chirag Jay Patel

➡️ About the Authors

Dr. Chhavi Chauhan is a science enthusiast, a former biomedical researcher who now works for the American Society for Investigative Pathology, a renowned AI Ethicist, a serial volunteer, & serves on the Boards for multiple mission-driven organizations. Besides work, she enjoys board games, her walks, yard work, & FOOD!

Chirag “Jay” Patel is a Jack of all trades, master of none. He has always been a salesperson & works for Cactus Communications, is a SDG Publishers Compact Fellow & volunteers for SSP & ISMPP. His interests lie at the crossroads of AI research integrity, science communication, & Sustainable Development Goals. When he is not working, he likes to goof around with his kids, read, listen to a podcast, spend time in the garden, or go for a walk.

Both authors are thought leaders, renowned public speakers, & invited blog writers.

➡️ Can’t Have Enough of Us!

➡️ Join SSP’s AI Community of Interest (AI CoIN) that we co-facilitate with >200 members

🗓️ Authors’ Recent & Upcoming Speaking Engagements & Updates:

Chhavi

➡️ Book release: Artificial Intelligence in Pathology: Principles and Applications; 2nd Edition

➡️ January 6th: Faculty, CSE Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, & Accessibility Virtual Short Course teaching on “Artificial intelligence & potential opportunities & threats for DEIA”

If you enjoy reading the newsletter, sign up or share with someone who may be interested!

“For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them.”

― Aristotle

Welcome, readers,

We thank you for your continued support 🙏🏽 We must be doing something right as the subs for the newsletter keep going up 📈🥳

Hope you enjoyed the opening newsletter in this series with reasons why & recommendations for employers & organizations to upskill their workforce 🤔 & our last newsletter with resources for professionals to upskill themselves 💪🏽 As promised, we are back with the concluding newsletter in this series to take upskilling to the next level using real-world evidence from peers - stronger together 💪🦾

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➡️ Real World Survey (Questions)

We asked the Scholarly Publishing community the following questions.

1. How would you rate your current knowledge and proficiency with generative AI (Gen AI) tools in scholarly publishing?

2. Which Gen AI skills do you feel are most important to develop for your role in scholarly publishing? (Select up to 3)

3. How does your organization support your Gen AI upskilling? (Select one)

4. In your opinion, what role do you believe Gen AI plays in the scholarly publishing industry?

5. Please share any resources you have used for upskilling in the past year.

6. If you would like to share additional insights please provide us your name and email below.

➡️ The State of Upskilling in Scholarly Publishing - Results from 73 respondents

Our survey revealed varying levels of expertise with Gen AI tools in scholarly publishing:

41.1% have intermediate knowledge and some practical experience.

38.4% reported basic knowledge with limited experience, highlighting a need for more training.

15.1% possess advanced knowledge, using AI tools regularly.

2.7% are experts with extensive experience, leading innovation.

2.7% have no proficiency, indicating untapped potential in some areas.

These findings show a growing engagement with Gen AI, but highlight gaps in expertise that need addressing.

When asked which Gen AI skills are most important for their roles, respondents emphasized a mix of technical, ethical, and practical expertise. The most frequently selected skills included:

• Understanding the ethical implications of Gen AI

• Ensuring research integrity when using Gen AI

• Leveraging Gen AI for workflow automation

• Utilizing Gen AI for science communication and marketing

• Applying Gen AI for data analysis and visualization

• Using Gen AI for manuscript drafting and editing

The results highlight a balance between developing practical applications of AI tools and addressing ethical considerations, reflecting the field's commitment to responsible innovation.

The survey explored how organizations support Gen AI skill development. Here's what respondents shared:

• 46.6% reported their organizations provide training opportunities, showing a solid commitment to employee development.

• 39.7% stated their organizations do not provide training, but they wish such resources were available.

• 13.7% prefer self-paced online courses for their learning needs.

These findings suggest a growing effort to offer structured training, but also highlight a gap in support for some professionals. Expanding accessible and flexible learning options could better meet diverse needs.

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➡️ What do scholarly publishing professionals think about upskilling?

👇🏽 Below are testimonials and individually shared resources/insights from experts in our industry:

💡 “Upskilling is essential for the AI-driven future of scholarly publishing. Professionals must master AI tools, data analytics, and natural language processing, coupled with strong data literacy to interpret AI-generated insights. Ensuring content quality requires human oversight with skills in evaluation, ethics, and bias detection. Effective collaboration, including project management and communication, is also crucial for AI initiatives. Continuous education will keep professionals abreast of technological advancements. Understanding customer behavior and market trends through AI insights necessitates expertise in market analysis and user experience and creative and strategic thinking will remain indispensable, requiring skills in strategic planning and innovation.” – Staci Masucci, Elsevier

 💡“It is undeniable that upskilling will have a substantial role in the AI dominated future in scholarly publishing. Fortunately, I don’t think this will be as challenging as we worry it could be (which is not to say it won’t be challenging). The first major barrier will be acceptance and an understanding that AI is able to help with tasks/ roles, not just from a top down imposed way, but more from a bottom up individually driven way. One way to help with this will be liberating AI from IT departments, and getting people to understand that they can “teach” AI their domain specific skills, and have AI be their assistant. This came up in conversation twice in Frankfurt (entirely separately) where the point was made that to get a generative AI tool to be better at copyediting (for example), the best person to teach, instruct and correct the AI is a copyeditor, not an engineer. This also came up with AI ethics discussions, emphasizing the importance of other domain skills in training AI’s, and not just leaving it to engineers. In terms of upskilling, the challenge will be getting whole teams used to using generative AI tools, especially those like ChatGPT that have very open ended uses (as contrasting perhaps an AI tool for peer review, which will have very specific, and restricted, uses.” – Christopher Ried, AAAS

💡 “1. Shifting roles - Many traditional roles, like copyediting or proofreading (within the boundary that we operate), might shift towards roles that require a combination of human judgment and machine assistance. Upskilling will help professionals transition to roles such as data curation, data insights, exception handling etc. As I mentioned in my presentation - "Exceptions need exceptional people".

2. Moving to creative and strategic roles - Designing workflows where humans and machines work optimally, creating new business models, creating new digital formats for research dissemination, identifying the problem statements across the organisation, balancing design and data etc.” – Shanthi Krishnamurthy, TNQ

➡️ What role do you believe Gen AI plays in the scholarly publishing industry?

1. Workflow Automation: Streamlining processes like editing, proofreading, peer review, and data analysis.

2. Support for Authors and Editors: Assisting with language, accessibility, and leveling the playing field for underrepresented groups.

3. Peer Review and Integrity: Enhancing fraud detection, statistical checks, and overall research integrity.

4. Ethical Concerns: Addressing misuse, protecting content, and maintaining trust in science.

5. Transformative Potential: Becoming indispensable in all aspects of scholarly publishing.

6. Equity and Access: Improving accessibility to publishing tools for smaller organizations and authors.

7. Augmentation, Not Replacement: Acting as a human-assistive tool rather than a replacement.

➡️ Most Common Resources for Learning and Adapting to AI in Scholarly Publishing

Industry Conferences and Memberships

• Society for Scholarly Publishing’s AI Community of Interest (AI CoIN)

• Association of University Presses

• Council of Science Editors

• Silverchair Platform Strategies

Online Learning Platforms

• LinkedIn Learning

• Coursera

• EdX

• FutureLearn

• Company training resources

AI Tools and Practical Use

• ChatGPT

• Grammarly

• Perplexity

• Internal AI tool tutorials

Webinars and Video Modules

• Live or recorded sessions from industry experts, universities, and organizations

Newsletters and Blogs

• Sidecar

• Christopher Penn

• Ethan Mollick

• The Scholarly Kitchen

Books and Articles

• "Ethical Machines" by Reid Blackman, various online articles and academic blogs

Peer Learning and Networking

• Brown bag discussions

• Social media (LinkedIn)

• Learning from colleagues

Trial and Error

• Experimentation with tools and workflows to understand applications

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➡️ Go You, ‘coz You Can!

Good luck upskilling yourself using the expert insights from successful professionals in the scholarly publishing domain 👆🏽 and share your own thoughts for us to continue the dialog & for us to share in the future 🙌🏽 

➡️ Feedback Corner

Your thoughts & comments welcomed: augmentscholpub@gmail.com; the newsletter was:

Until next newsletter,

Chhavi Chauhan and Chirag Jay Patel

➡️ About the Authors

Dr. Chhavi Chauhan is a science enthusiast, a former biomedical researcher who now works for the American Society for Investigative Pathology, a renowned AI Ethicist, a serial volunteer, & serves on the Boards for multiple mission-driven organizations. Besides work, she enjoys board games, her walks, yard work, & FOOD!

Chirag “Jay” Patel is a Jack of all trades, master of none. He has always been a salesperson & works for Cactus Communications, is a SDG Publishers Compact Fellow & volunteers for SSP & ISMPP. His interests lie at the crossroads of AI research integrity, science communication, & Sustainable Development Goals. When he is not working, he likes to goof around with his kids, read, listen to a podcast, spend time in the garden, or go for a walk.

Both authors are thought leaders, renowned public speakers, & invited blog writers. 

➡️ Can’t Have Enough of Us!

➡️ Join SSP’s AI Community of Interest (AI CoIN) that we co-facilitate with >250 members

🗓️ Authors’ Recent & Upcoming Speaking Engagements & Updates:

Chhavi

➡️ 11/04/2024: Invited talk: Moving beyond Data Bias: Integrating AI Ethics in Computational Pathology for Improved Patient Care, Pathology Visions’24, Orlando

➡️ 12/02/2024: CSE Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility Virtual Short Course; Faculty

➡️ 12/17/2024: Inteleos Webinar: Panelist: “Innovation & Creativity: Is AI Friend or Foe?”

➡️ Book release: Artificial Intelligence in Pathology: Principles and Applications; 2nd Edition

Please go to this link to participate - https://forms.gle/8PtmiMgY2sBmRm7U6

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To date we have received 36 responses from folks in the Scholarly Publishing industry. Here is snapshot of the responses.

We will be sharing our findings from this survey in our next issue on Upskilling.

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Thank you in advance!

Chhavi and Jay

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever!” - Mahatma Gandhi

Welcome, readers,

Hope the cooling Fall 🍁 has given everyone a breath of relief & respite from the summer heat ☀️ Not sure about you, but we are both wondering where & how the 8 months zipped by this year 🤔  We are at least glad that we are on to our 8th newsletter this year 🥳

🙏🏽 Thank you for the amazing feedback on the opening newsletter in this series in which we shared reasons why & recommendations for employers & organizations to upskill their workforce. As promised, we are back with the next newsletter with a series of courses and course agnostic recommendations to equip individuals to upskill themselves 💪🦾

Note, in the final concluding newsletter we will share data & insights from industry professionals that have embarked on the journey to upskill themselves to remain relevant & indispensable 😉🤖  So stay tuned!

Oh, To Be A Lifelong Learner!

📚 Foundational Courses: ‘Coz You Need To Know It All!

➡️ AI for Everyone from Andrew Ng and Coursera - In this course, Andrew Ng, one of the top minds in AI, introduces the fundamentals of artificial intelligence for business 🎖️

➡️ Intro to Large Language Models by Andrej Karpathy - Check out this hour-long YouTube tutorial that explains how large language models (LLMs) work 💡

➡️ Artificial Intelligence Beginners Guide: What is AI? - Perfect for beginners, it covers essential AI  and machine learning basics, & discusses AI's future 🔮

➡️ Attention Is All You Need - Grasp the transformer architecture, which underpins models like BERT and GPT, by reading this research paper 💡

➡️ University of California—Davis: Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, and Ethics - A self-paced, 4-week Coursera course (with > 31,000 participants) focussed on big data, AI history, and research ethics 🎖️

➡️ LLM-PowerHouse - Unleash LLMs' potential through curated tutorials, best practices, & ready-to-use code for custom training & inferencing.

➡️ Hugging Face NLP Course - Learn how to fine-tune datasets & use the transformers library with Hugging Face’s pipeline for various tasks 🏗️

➡️ LLM University by Cohere - Start with the basics or simply advance to topics like prompt engineering, fine-tuning, and RAGs ⏩

📚 Gen AI Courses: ‘Coz That’s The Current Craze!

➡️ Generative AI Fundamentals from Databricks - In just 4 short videos learn about LLM applications, succeeding with Gen AI, & assessing potential risks and challenges 🎖️

➡️ Generative AI courses on Coursera - Find the latest in Gen AI through this selection of highly-rated online courses 🔝

➡️ How to Learn Generative AI with Microsoft’s Free Course - In this Version 2, learn about Gen AI & build your own AI apps using Python or TypeScript 🏗️

➡️ Introduction to Generative AI from Google - This course on Gen AI reveals how the technology works without getting overly technical 💡

➡️ IBM will train you in AI fundamentals for free - IBM's AI Fundamentals program takes about 10 hours to complete, across six courses 🎖️

➡️ GenAI with LLMs by Deeplearning.AI - This 3-week, full-time course covers the fundamentals of LLMs, transformer architecture, & prompt engineering 🤯

➡️ Prompt Engineering 101 by sidecar: 2 modules, 13 lessons, & 7 prompt techniques that folks in scholarly publishing have taken & loved 🎗️

📚 AI For Business, Marketing & MORE: ‘Coz It Matters What & How You Sell!

➡️ Intro to AI from Marketing AI Institute - A free live online 30-minute tutorial from the Marketing AI Institute to get you started with AI ⏩

➡️ University of Pennsylvania: AI for Business - A 4-month AI for Business specialization on Coursera, taught by Wharton professors, includes 4 beginner courses and a final project, with a LinkedIn certificate upon completion. 🎖️

➡️ The Ultimate AI Toolkit for Associations by sidecar: Learn about Marketing, Customer Engagement, Finance, Sales, Leadership & Management, Time Management, Business Strategy, & Human Resources AI tools 💥

🎖️ - certification provided

➡️ How Are Folks Upskilling In Scholarly Publishing

Below are the results of a short survey we conducted in our last newsletter to assess how folks are upskilling themselves:

➡️ And If The Courses Are Not For You, This Is How You Do It!

Editorial Upskilling: 

• Collaborate closely with the tech teams to identify pain points in the editorial office workflow

• Test AI models for their usability, sustainability, & scalability

• Develop metrics to evaluate continued intended performance

Digital Literacy:

• Educate all stakeholders about the responsible use of AI

• Host sessions & workshops to bring folks up to speed

• Conduct surveys to gauge input to identify gaps in awareness to bridge

Data Analysis & Visualization - Analyze your data with different AI tools to 

• improve productivity

• identify pain points

• strategize forward

AI & Machine Learning Applications

• Engage with vendors to understand their offerings & their utility to you

• Reach out to the community to learn what works

• Seek recommendations for specific questions/problems from experts in public forums

Open Access & Open Science Practices

• Survey the landscape for evolving best practices

• Partner up with early successful adopters

• Invite collaborators to distribute risk & share rewards

Research Evaluation & Metrics

• Engage researchers & authors; they may have tested brilliant ideas

• Leverage available AI tools to generate accessible metrics to make a business case

Content Marketing & Promotion

• Automate to decrease burden & liberate time for creative personalized marketing

• Automate content to adapt optimally for different social media platforms

• Use AI to make recommendations for when to promote content

Accessibility & Inclusion

• Leverage tools with focus on DEIA for better inclusion & outreach

• Actively engage with developers to promote products with DEIA in mind

Digital Transformation Leadership

• Engage with leadership to bring about the needed change

• Share active feedback on the integration process

• Share concerns about any possible unintended outcomes

Professional Certification Programs

• ‘Coz you got to “Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever!”

➡️ Go You, ‘Coz You Can!

Good luck upskilling yourself using the above-mentioned resources 👆🏽 & stay tuned as we share insights on upskilling from professionals in the scholarly publishing domain in our next newsletter in this series. 

➡️ Feedback Corner

Your thoughts & comments welcomed: augmentscholpub@gmail.com; the newsletter was:

Until next newsletter,

Chhavi Chauhan and Chirag Jay Patel

➡️ About the Authors

Dr. Chhavi Chauhan is a science nerd, a former biomedical researcher who now works for the American Society for Investigative Pathology, a renowned AI Ethicist, a serial volunteer, & serves on the Boards for multiple mission-driven organizations. Besides work, she enjoys board games, her walks, yard work, & FOOD!

Chirag “Jay” Patel is a Jack of all trades, master of none. He has always been a salesperson & works for Cactus Communications, is a SDG Publishers Compact Fellow & volunteers for SSP & ISMPP. His interests lie at the crossroads of AI research integrity, science communication, & sustainable development goals. When he is not working, he likes to goof around with his kids, read, listen to a podcast, spend time in the garden, or go for a walk.

Both authors are thought leaders, renowned public speakers, & invited blog writers. 

➡️ Can’t Have Enough of Us!

➡️ Join SSP’s AI Community of Interest (AI CoIN) that we co-facilitate with >200 members

🗓️ Authors’ Recent & Upcoming Speaking Engagements:

Chhavi

➡️ September: 

09/10/24: AAMC webinar on “”The Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) Tools in the Scholarly Publishing Process: Considerations and Practical Suggestions for Scholars” (230 live attendees)

09/12/24: Presentation at the OSU Update Course and the Digital Pathology Workshop in Columbus, Ohio on: “An Overview of the Digital Pathology Association (DPA)”

If you enjoy reading the newsletter, sign up or share with someone who may be interested!

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"You will not fail because your LLMs don't do what you need. You're going to fail because you don't educate and empower your employee base and you don't put the right controls in place."

– Jeff McMillan, the new head of firmwide AI at Morgan Stanley

Welcome, readers,

Hope summer is treating you well 🌞 & you are ready to make the most of the remaining five months of this fast flying year 🪁

Yes, we kicked off this year by discussing the 🔮 future of work in the age of AI 🤖. The layoffs as well as the emergence of new roles continues at a slow pace; however, it is clear that both individuals & enterprises need to focus on upskilling* the existing workforce to benefit from AI 🤯

Yep, as we deep dove, we realized the vastness of this topic & decided to address upskilling in 3 subsequent newsletters. This opening newsletter focuses on strategies for employers/organizations to upskill the workforce. In the next newsletter, we will share resources for & actionable tips for individuals to upskill themselves, & in the final concluding newsletter we will share data & insights from industry professionals that have embarked on the journey to upskill themselves to remain relevant & indispensable 😉🤖

*Upskilling refers to the process of learning new skills or improving existing ones to enhance job performance and career prospects – IBM. 

➡️ Upskill; Why Upskill?

Though the advantages of upskilling may not be evident to all 😆 below are some specific positive impacts of upskilling both for the employers & the employees 💯:

For employers

• Retain trained talent & institutional knowledge while innovating 🎖️

• Save time, resources, & costs in hiring “new” specifically skilled talent 🤑

• Prevent potential delays in timelines &/or lost business by seeking new talent ⏲️

• Maintain company culture while leveraging existing processes 🫂

• Showcase commitment to employee growth by retaining good talent ✨

For employees

• Learn new skills to augment workflows 💡

• Potential for career & salary growth 📈

• Increased job satisfaction 🧡

• Improved sense of commitment & community/belonging 🫂

• Job stability in a dynamic competitive job market 🧘🏽‍♀️

➡️ Upskilling: A Broad Outlook

A recent Gallup poll of US workers reports that 48% of American workers may switch to a new job if it offered them skills training opportunities 💡& only 47% of employees strongly believe they possess the skills necessary to excel in their current roles 😳 Still lucky to have a job, eh 😉

➡️ Upskilling; in Scholarly Publishing!?!

Our domain also mimics the trends in other reported sectors when it comes to upskilling. Our week-long poll on LinkedIn for professionals in our industry (with a measly, hopefully representative, 18 votes) reimpresses the need for formalizing training to integrate AI tools for augmenting workflows.

➡️ Strategies to Upskill

Major companies in various sectors such as Walmart, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, UST, & Pfizer are partnering up 🫱🏽‍🫲🏽 with institutions like Human Centered AI, MIT, Stanford AI Labs, etc. with the aim to upskill their staff & to leverage generative AI to improve efficiencies & decrease staff focus on repetitive tasks. Academic institutions like Wharton have launched their own Generative AI Lab to conduct research, learn, & apply new ways to use Gen AI at work & in education.

The publishing industry's hesitance to embrace generative AI may be a significant misstep that may delay potential innovations 😔 

If you are interested in upskilling, pick one or a few specific strategic ideas from the list below 👇🏽 to approach your employer as you make your business case: 

• Institution of specific employee training programs to meet organizational needs 🤼 

• Institution of professional development opportunities to train personnel in specific skills in AI, data science, programming languages, etc 🤖

• Foster responsible partnerships between publishers, researchers, & technologists to share knowledge & expertise 🫂

• Provide structured mentorship conduits by pairing professionals with AI experts & industry leaders to guide them in developing new skills 👩🏽‍🏫

• Financial support for employees to get trained using available online courses & certifications in AI & related fields 💰

• Participation in & organization of industry events like conferences, webinars, & seminars to showcase AI applications & best practices in scholarly publishing 🌃

• Encourage cross-functional teams to allow collaboration between editorial, production, & technology teams to develop AI-driven solutions 🫱🏽‍🫲🏽

• Institution of policies to encourage experimentation by enabling professionals to experiment with AI tools & technologies to develop innovative solutions 📃

• Evolving approach to change management to provide support & resources to manage the transition to AI-driven workflows & mindsets 💡

• Focus on inclusivity & accessibility to all professionals, regardless of background or location 🦾

➡️ Go You, ‘coz You Can!

Good luck making a business case to your employer/organization by using the above-mentioned list 👆🏽 & stay tuned for us to share upskilling tools & resources for the professionals in the scholarly publishing domain in our upcoming newsletter. 

➡️ Feedback Corner

Your thoughts & comments welcomed: augmentscholpub@gmail.com; the newsletter was:

Until next newsletter,

Chhavi Chauhan & Chirag Jay Patel

➡️ About the Authors

Dr. Chhavi Chauhan is a science nerd, a former biomedical researcher who now works for the American Society for Investigative Pathology, a renowned AI Ethicist, a serial volunteer, & serves on the Boards for multiple mission-driven organizations. Besides work, she enjoys board games, her walks, yard work, & FOOD!

Chirag “Jay” Patel is a Jack of all trades, master of none. He has always been a salesperson & works for Cactus Communications, is a SDG Publishers Compact Fellow & volunteers for SSP & ISMPP. His interests lie at the crossroads of AI, research integrity, science communication, & Sustainable Development Goals. When he is not working, he likes to goof around with his kids, read, listen to a podcast, spend time in the garden, or go for a walk.

Both authors are thought leaders, renowned public speakers, & invited blog writers. 

➡️ Can’t Have Enough of Us!

➡️ Join SSP’s AI Community of Interest (AI CoIN) that we co-facilitate with >200 members

🗓️ Authors’ Recent & Upcoming Speaking Engagements:

Chhavi

➡️ July 9th: Academic Language Experts Webinar: Supercharge your institution with responsible AI! Tips and tools to effectively incorporate AI into your publishing journey; FREE registration

➡️ July 17- 19: ISMTE Annual Meeting in Pittsburgh

➡️ July 17th: Participant: “Dial “M” for Metadata: An Interactive Who-Done-It”

➡️ July 18th: Presenter: “Driving Positive Change with the Workplace Equity Survey” 

➡️ July 19th: Moderator: “Career Journeys: What Happens After You Roll the Dice?”l

Jay

➡️ July 17: ISMTE Annual Meeting in Pittsburgh

➡️ July 17th: Presenter: “Generative AI for the Editorial Office”

Hope you are back from the Spring break 💮 & situated enough to appreciate this special ICYMI newsletter edition!

Yes, this past hiatus was unannounced & unintended; we hope you caught us with some of our recent speaking engagements though.

ICYMI 😆

Both Chhavi and Jay shared their career paths and the making of (& the recent updates from) Society for Scholarly Publishing’s AI Community of Interest (SSP AI CoIN) at the SSP’s Early Career Professionals’ CoIN meeting last Friday.

Chhavi spoke about the “▶️The Future of Work in the Age of AI” at an Executive Boot Camp 💪🏽 organized by the Platinum Resource Group; joined Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB’s) recently formed “Generative AI Task Force” to guide policies 📜 in the use of generative AI in scholarly publishing; and recorded a podcast 📺 episode on “AI Ethics in Digital Pathology” for the Digital Pathology Today podcast. 

Jay presented at a webinar hosted by Society for Artificial Intelligence & Health, Inc. (SAIH) on 🏥“▶️Generative AI's Impact on Authoring Medical Research” and presented in a Council of Science Editors webinar titled “Promoting Individual Research in the Digital Age” 🧑🏽‍💻

➡️ Let’s catch you up on all things scholarly publishing 📚& generative AI 🤖 after this poll; the trends seem to be shifting recently in our circles 📈, where do you stand?

➡️ Job Security; Yeah, Right!

Our opening 2024 newsletter discussed the🔮 future of work in the age of AI 🤖 Yes, the continuing saga of job losses is alarming ⏰ Findings from a new survey of 2000 executives suggest that AI may shrink (human) workforces within 5 years. However, the society of authors survey tells a rather alarming story of the current rate of job displacements! Survey of its 12,500 members reports already displaced jobs for 26% of surveyed illustrators and 36% of surveyed translators. YIKES 🤯 No wonder, big tech companies have formed a new consortium to allay fear of AI job takeovers as another survey of 1500 North American workers finds that AI security is a new battle between employers and workers ⚔️; go figure! 

➡️ Copyright, Let’s Take It To The Mattresses!

In February, we explored the murky world of copyright in the new dawn of AI 🌅 For AI firms, anything "public" remains a fair game & not surprisingly, OpenAI’s GPT store is triggering copyright complaints. With limited “training data” remaining available, the race to buy AI training data continues within the big tech, albeit with some hurdles 😝 creating a new market for purchasing user content like photos, videos, and writings to train AI systems. But, what about the scholarly content 😎 Academic publishers are revising the website copyright notices to mention that they reserve rights to text & data mining (TDM) & AI training (Check out the website footers for Elsevier and Wiley). Copyright Clearance Center proposes that licensing may be the way forward and the authors' guild strongly advocates for writers’ (and publishers) consent for using content. 

➡️ Research Integrity, A Thing of the Past!

Later in February, we dove into generative AI generated scientific content: the good, the bad, & the ugly! This story got uglier as now there are vendors offering citations for purchase 🤯Also, new evidence confirms unreported use of gen AI in peer review. Not surprisingly, forensic scientometrics (FoSci) is now an emerging field to safeguard the integrity of the scientific record 🕵🏽‍♀️ along with automated analysis of the bibliography to detect potential research integrity issues 🔬Some would like to place the onus back on the institutions in ensuring the clean scientific record from the start 😎 The silver lining is that spotting scientific fraud may become a specialized career with its own tools, practices, & code of conduct 🙌🏽 hopefully, opening up some new jobs 😉

➡️ Policy, What Policy?

In March, we explored the evolving world of AI policies ⚖️ To ensure data authenticity, consent, and provenance, the US and Great Britain has forged an AI safety pact ✒️ & the EU and US are set to announce joint working on AI safety, standards, & R&D 🫶🏽 Did we mention that FASEB recently formed “Generative AI Task Force” to guide policies 📜 in the use of generative AI in scholarly publishing?

🗓️ Upcoming April and Early May AI Speaking Engagements for the authors:

Chhavi

➡️ April 18th: Panelist: Silverchair’s AI Lab Reports Webinar: AI A to Z: A Primer on AI Applications in Scholarly Publishing; FREE registration

➡️ ASIP Annual Meeting in Baltimore

➡️ April 23rd: Moderator: AI Tools in Scientific Research 

➡️ April 23rd: Moderator: The Impact of Artificial Intelligence-Based Tools on Research Integrity and Scholarly Publishing: A Boon or a Peril

➡️ CSE Annual Meeting in Portland

➡️ May 6th: Panelist: Bridging AI and Human Expertise for Sustainable Scholarly Communication: Enhancing Integrity and Efficiency 

➡️ May 7th: Speaker: Approaching Workforce Sustainability in Scholarly Publishing by Embracing DEIA: Findings from the Workplace Equity Survey 2023 

Jay

➡️ April 23rd: STM Annual US Conference in Washington DC - Speaker: Launch of STM Trends 2028

➡️ April 23rd: ASIP Annual Meeting in Baltimore - Speaker: The Impact of Artificial Intelligence-Based Tools on Research Integrity and Scholarly Publishing: A Boon or a Peril

➡️ April 30th: Plenary: ISMPP Artificial Intelligence Task Force: Removing Barriers to Confident AI Use

➡️ CSE Annual Meeting in Portland

➡️ May 6th: Moderator: Bridging AI and Human Expertise for Sustainable Scholarly Communication: Enhancing Integrity and Efficiency at the 

➡️ May 7th: Ethics Clinic: Paper Mills and Predatory Publishers

➡️ May 7th: The Ever-Changing Landscape of Social Media

Feedback Corner

If you enjoyed reading the newsletter, sign up or share with someone who may be interested!

Thanks for reading!  Your feedback is important for us to cater to your scholarly needs:

Reader’s Sounding Board

We appreciate your thoughts, suggestions, and comments: augmentscholpub@gmail.com

Until next newsletter,

Chhavi Chauhan and Chirag Jay Patel

Welcome, ScholCom/MedCom peers,

⬅ Reflecting Back –

📈 The growing numbers of lay-offs across industries made us reflect back on our opening newsletter for ‘24 on the future of work 🔮, especially as Turnitin begins with the layoffs while the fintech company Klarna revealed the extent of AI efficiency to potentially replace human workforce.  

📢 Open AI announced a “new” Board as it continues to be challenged left, right, and center by other news outlets over AI training. This made us think (yes, yet again!) about the murky world of copyright © ️(➡️ check out the interesting poll results!)

➡️ The growing interest in a certain “rat” continues to make our last newsletter on generative AI generated scientific content 🤖 relevant & in demand 😎 

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⏭️ Moving On –

📢 We heard from our scholarly publishing peers that they continue to be inundated by either putting new policies & regulations in place or revising them ⚖️ Therefore, we decided to review the current state of affairs to mindfully guide our next steps💡 

➡️ We review the global AI regulations broadly, followed by the specifics in the scholarly publishing industry in the context of the: authors, publishers, journals, editors, libraries, higher education, & more! 

🧭 How it all started – 

🌟 The European Union (EU) has been at the forefront of leading regulation in the AI domain ⛔ & the EU Artificial Intelligence Act (AIA) is setting the current standards ⚖️ for all AI vendors to make their tools compliant for global sustainable usage 🌏

🗺️ The United (States) Stand – 

🗓️ Since last year, there have been several developments in the US:

➡️ The blueprint for an AI bill of rights from the Office of Science and Technology (OSTP)

➡️ The AI Risk Management Framework from the National Institute of Standards & Technology (NIST)

➡️ The National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource Pilot (NAIRR) from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF). 

➡️ The establishment of the U.S. AI Safety Institute (USAISI) & the supporting USAISI Consortium with >200 member organizations.

🌏 The Global Stand – 

The OECD.AI policy observatory offers a comprehensive repository of >1000 AI policy initiatives from 69 countries 🌏

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💭 Responsible Tech – A Continued Dream or a Reality in the Making?

Self-audit is not unbiased & transparent 🤔 but legal protections for independent evaluation of generative AI risks is currently a dream. 🌟To make this dream a reality, responsible generative AI researchers recommend an independent safe harbor for AI evaluation & red teaming. ✒️Sign on the open letter, already signed by >100 leading researchers, journalists, & advocates, if it appeals to you.

🆕 The Evolving Gen AI Policies in Scholarly Publishing – 

📢 A recent BMJ publication provides the most comprehensive analysis of generative AI use guidelines for authors across top 100 largest academic publishers & top 100 highly ranked scientific journals. 

⬇️ Below, we break down the current policies from select publishers, journals, editors, libraries, & such to help you explore the current policy landscape in our industry to build upon 🏗️

The Publisher’s Stand –

Elsevier - 

📈 AI tools should only enhance readability, not replace critical authoring tasks. 📢 Authors must disclose AI use, avoid attributing authorship to AI, & adhere to Elsevier's ethics policy. ⛔ Restrictions apply to image manipulation.

The Journals’ Stand –

Nature - 

⛔ LLMs cannot be listed as an author, use of a large language model (LLM) by an author should be properly documented in the Methods section 🛑 Peer reviewers are encouraged not to use an LLM due to lack of up-to-date knowledge, as they may produce nonsensical, biased or false information, & to protect the sensitive or proprietary information in manuscripts.

Science -

⛔ Does not allow AI-generated text, figures, or images.

JAMA - 

☑️ Requires disclosure of AI use in manuscripts ⚠️caution against improper AI use in peer review 📈though AI promises publishing efficiencies ➡️JAMA stresses responsible AI use as biases & ethical issues remain inadequately addressed.

Plos One -

☑️ Allows the use of AI tools.

NEJM AI - 

✅ Permits the use of LLMs in scientific writing with proper acknowledgment & author accountability 📈 LLMs enhance scientific work but must not be listed as coauthors ⛔

The Editors’ Stand –

Consistent with the stand taken by the Committee on Publishing Ethics (COPE), editors of Ethics & Human Research; Accountability in Research; Hastings Center Report; Ethics & Human Research; Bioethics; Developing World Bioethics; Developing World Bioethics recommend ⛔ against using LLMs as authors, 🔎focus on author & editorial transparency with the use of generative AI, 👀 editorial oversight in peer review, & 😇 reliance on human authors & editors.

The Libraries’ Stand –

American Libraries interviewed 5 technology experts, educators, & librarians who leverage generative AI at their institutions to understand its current use in libraries, the underlying ethical concerns, & the future course of action for responsible adoption.

Higher Education Stand – 

Last summer, Scribber analyzed data from top 100 universities & reported a lack of clear guidance at 27% of surveyed universities. The majority (51%) of the universities allowed the individual instructor to make the decision, whereas only 4% allowed use with citation, unless disallowed by the instructors. 18% of the universities banned the use by default though allowed use under permission from individual instructors. Please review the list of individual universities in this survey for updated policies.  

Source: https://www.scribbr.com/ai-tools/chatgpt-university-policies/ 

And Some “More” Stands:

International Society for Medical Publication Professionals (ISMPP) position statement & call to action on artificial intelligence: ISMPP urges Medical Publication & Communication professionals to commit to: Appropriate AI Utilization, Maintaining Confidentiality, Driving Accountability, Appropriate Disclosure, Ensuring Responsibility, Data Transparency, Eliminating Bias, Enhancing Accessibility, Respecting the Academic Integrity of AI, Educating about AI, & Addressing AI Misconceptions

The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) updated the recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, & Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals.

The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) Board of Ethics and Professional Standards (BEPS) guides the ethical use of AI for public relations practitioners. 

➡️ tldr; the Bottomline:

➡️ The guidelines on appropriate generative AI use by authors remain inconsistent 😑 

➡️ Varying policies on disclosure & allowable uses burden authors and risk ineffectiveness 😏

➡️ Standardized guidelines will be needed to protect scientific integrity❗

📢 Bonus Shout-Out:

ICYMO the engaging Copyright Clearance Center’s recent Town Hall exploring the intersection of AI & copyright ⚖️, you may want to visit their resource center to join the conversation.

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Poll Double Header

🔎Avi’s AI Tool Spotlight: 

Perplexity

Perplexity AI is a conversational search engine that answers queries using natural language predictive text.  Perplexity generates answers using the sources from the web & cites links within the text response. Perplexity’s model is based on OpenAI's GPT-3.5 model combined with the company's standalone LLM that incorporates natural language processing (NLP) capabilities. 

Quick Summaries

Turnitin laid off staff earlier this year, after CEO forecast AI would allow it to cut headcount: True to the words of the Turnitin CEO Chris Caren from last year that the company will leverage AI to reduce 20% of the workforce, the slow premeditated process of layoffs has now begun. It’s the engineering jobs on line for now (to be followed by sales & marketing), with a focus on eventually replacing more senior personnel with college degrees with new talent coming out from high schools. 

Klarna CEO says AI can do the job of 700 workers. But job replacement isn't the biggest issue: The fintech company Klarna is transparent about how it is leveraging AI to improve workflow efficiencies as well as customer satisfaction, which will ultimately result in replacing human workers. The company stopped hiring 6 months ago & is apparently shrinking naturally by “attrition!”

OpenAI hit with new lawsuits from news outlets over AI training: News outlets including The Intercept, Raw Story, & AlterNet sue OpenAI, alleging misuse of copyrighted articles to train ChatGPT. Lawsuits seek damages & injunctions, highlighting broader concerns over AI's use of copyrighted material. OpenAI faces growing legal scrutiny amid claims of copyright infringement.

The EU Artificial Intelligence Act: Up-to-date developments and analyses of the EU AI Act: The website for EU AIA describes in detail the AI act, has a compliance checker to guide vendors in developing sustainable tools that would be usable globally, & has a link to sign up for the newsletter to continue to gather biweekly updates on the new developments & analyses of the act itself. 

Blueprint For An AI Bill Of Rights: Making Automated Systems Work For The American People: The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) has identified 5 principles to guide the design, use, & deployment of automated systems to protect the American public in the age of AI. The five principles are: Safe & Effective Systems, Algorithmic Discrimination Protections, Data Privacy, Notice & Explanation, & Human Alternatives, Consideration, & Fallback.

AI Risk Management Framework: The framework of the National Institute of Standards & Technology (NIST) is intended to be voluntary, rights-preserving, non-sector-specific, & use-case agnostic, providing flexibility for organizations of all sizes & sectors to implement the outlined approaches.

National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource Pilot: The NAIRR pilot will run for 2 years, beginning January 24, 2024. The pilot will broadly support fundamental, translational, & use-inspired AI-related research with particular emphasis on societal challenges. Initial priority topics include safe, secure, & trustworthy AI; human health; & environment & infrastructure.

U.S. Artificial Intelligence Safety Institute (USAISI): NIST established the USAISI & the supporting USAISI consortium of >200 member organizations with the aim to develop empirically backed scientific guidelines & standards for overall global AI safety.

National AI policies & strategies: In a user-friendly approach, the OECD.AI policy observatory makes it convenient to search for >1000 AI policies from 69 countries, territories, & the EU. Besides filtering by region, users can filter info by policy instruments & target groups.

A Safe Harbor for AI Evaluation & Red Teaming: Responsible AI researchers studying generative AI systems studied the policies of 7 developers of generative AI models & recommended a commitment from the major AI developers for legal & technical safe harbor. The goal is to protect public interest safety research against legal reprisal. In this LinkedIn post, Kevin K. thoughtfully lists the concerns pertaining to independent safety research.

Source: https://knightcolumbia.org/blog/a-safe-harbor-for-ai-evaluation-and-red-teaming 

Publishers’ and journals’ instructions to authors on use of generative artificial intelligence in academic & scientific publishing: bibliometric analysis: Study reveals that 24% of the top 100 largest publishers offered guidance on the use of generative AI & 87% of the top highest ranked scientific journals & 86% of medicine subject area journals provided recommendations. 

Source: https://www.bmj.com/content/384/bmj-2023-077192

Generative AI in Higher Education - The Product Landscape: A new report from Ithaka S+R by 

Claire Baytas & Dylan Ruediger may help navigate the crowded generative AI (GAI) marketplace. The Product Tracker cataloged >100 GAI applications to aid informed decisions. Products that may assist in discovery, understanding, & content creation phases may revolutionize higher education workflows.

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🌎 Sustainability reads ♻️

The Scariest Part About Artificial Intelligence: AI poses serious threats to our sustainable future due to its excessive water & energy consumption, contribution to e-waste, & reliance on critical minerals. 

AI likely to increase energy use & accelerate climate misinformation – report: Environmental groups caution against overestimating AI's role in combating climate change. While touted as a solution, AI may actually worsen the crisis by driving up energy consumption & spreading climate disinformation.

The Obscene Energy Demands of A.I.: To respond to the estimated 200 million requests/day, Chat-GPT may be consuming >0.5 million kilowatt-hours of electricity. The average U.S. household consumes 29 kilowatt-hours/day!  YIKES!

🗓️ Upcoming March AI Events:

➡️ AI and Beyond: A vision for the future of publishing technology; FREE webinar for ALPSP members ONLY on March 26

➡️ Generative AI’s Impact on Authoring Medical Research; FREE webinar by SAIH on March 26

Feedback Corner

If you enjoyed reading the newsletter, sign up or share with someone who may be interested!

Thanks for reading!  Your feedback is important for us to cater to your scholarly needs:

Reader’s Sounding Board

Please share your thoughts, suggestions, and comments: augmentscholpub@gmail.com for us to share with our audience.

➡️ What policies are you using in your scholarly publishing domain to handle the use of AI in your specific context?

Until next newsletter,

Chhavi Chauhan and Chirag Jay Patel

Welcome, Scholarly Publishing peers,

What’s going on? 

The world of scholarly publishing was enthralled this past week by a published research paper that included wildly inaccurate illustrations which were created using Generative AI 🤖 The paper was quickly retracted by Frontiers but it earned an impressive (envious) altmetric score 💯 Unfortunately, not before a deep blow to research integrity & Frontiers 😖 which made the leading story in our opening newsletter this year for a different reason.

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Digging Up the Past – 

AI is bound to enrich our knowledge by miraculously revealing burned & buried ancient information in the scrolls📜 from the great civilizations of the past.  However, ironically, we continue to grapple with preserving the scholarly content in the age of digital publications 📚 Results from a survey recommend use of AI for an efficient peer review process to manage volumes😑 

When Enough’s Enough – 

Papermills Anyone? 

There are growing pressures for journals to publish more to prevail & not perish, though papermill content is not what anyone desires ⛔ yet there is a shift toward increased paper mill content 📈 

Manipulation, What Manipulation? 

Of course, there is a renewed interest in identifying fake research papers 🆔 and curtail fake manipulation of impact factors🚫

The Fall-Out! 

However, it is a constant uphill battle 📈 that sometimes results in false accusations affecting careers 📉

Retribution – 

In a surprising new turn of events, China begins to conduct first nationwide review of retractions and research misconduct 🔎 In fact, the Chinese Academy of Sciences has already independently published the 2024 edition of the Early Warning Journal List (EWL) ⚠️

🔎Avi’s AI Tool Spotlight: 

Relieving Concerns Over Gen AI–Generated Content – 

Iris.ai is an award-winning AI engine for scientific text understanding without compromising factual correctness. Iris.ai Researcher Workspace, a suite of AI-assisted research tools, is designed to help R&D professionals accelerate their entire scientific knowledge workflows: from exploring the right content (live & local datasets), smart filtering, and summarizing results to extracting data from papers or chatting with your datasets. 

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Quick Summaries

Scientific Journal Publishes AI-Generated Rat with Gigantic Penis In Worrying Incident: A science journal retracted a paper featuring nonsensical AI-generated images, notably including a wildly incorrect diagram of a rat penis & several illustrations with mislabels. The paper credited Midjourney for the images. This incident underscores concerns about generative AI's impact on academic integrity & highlights the need for improved editorial standards. It also strengthens the need & resolve to put human oversight front and center!

AI Unravels Ancient Roman Scroll Charred By Volcano: AI helps decipher the text of a 2,000-year-old scroll burned at Pompeii: Student researchers joined the “Vesuvius Challenge” to reveal hidden philosophical work that was buried and burned in papyrus, by training their machine-learning algorithms on scans of these artifacts.

Martin Eve – Crossref DOIs, persistent discovery, and the digital preservation of 7.5 million items: Ever wondered who preserves scholarly content in the age of digital publications 🤯 Despite some preservation efforts, millions of articles remain at risk. Direct outreach and a self-healing DOI project are proposed solutions.

Unveiling Perspectives on Peer Review and Research Integrity: Survey Insights The continued growth in publication volumes is putting a heavy strain on peer reviewers and endangering research integrity. The authors suggest that AI tools can support peer reviewers and enhance their work but AI must not replace human judgment.

Full text paper https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/leap.1594

Source: Calamur, H. and Ghosh, R. (2024), Adapting peer review for the future: Digital disruptions and trust in peer review. Learned Publishing, 37: 49-54. https://doi.org/10.1002/leap.1594

Ambiguous editor-publisher relationships are a perfect target for paper mills: Recent articles reveal paper mills bribing editors, extending to regular editors, blurring the editor-publisher relationship and fostering misconduct. The lack of oversight allows some editors to exploit their positions.

‘The situation has become appalling’: fake scientific papers push research credibility to crisis point Thousands of fake papers endanger medical research, fueled by paper mills. Rampant fraud threatens scientific integrity, with journals and peer reviewers failing to stem the tide. Worrisome implications for drug development and academic advancement.

Fake research papers flagged by analysing authorship trends: Identifying Fabricated Networks within Authorship-for-Sale Enterprises According to an arXiv preprint a new tool by Digital Science spots fake journal articles from paper mills. Using innovative methods, it detects suspicious author combinations.

Citation cartels help some mathematicians—and their universities—climb the rankings An analysis reveals mathematicians from China, Saudi Arabia, and elsewhere are inflating citation counts by referencing their own low-quality papers, boosting their universities' rankings. Clarivate has excluded math from its list of highly cited papers due to concerns about manipulation. Experts call for better evaluation systems beyond citation metrics.

Thank you for your warm work… earnestly An interesting piece by Adam Day. Some academic correspondence relies on templates, raising concerns about research integrity. Yet, template use is widespread beyond paper mills, complicating fraud detection. Editors must remain vigilant, but solely relying on templates for scrutiny may lead to false alarms.

I’m not a chatbot – I promise! E. M. Wolkovich writes “But I worry about a world in which a reviewer can casually level an accusation of fraud, and the editors and journal editor simply shuffle along the review and invite a resubmission. It suggests not only that reviewers and editors have no faith in the scientific integrity of the submitting authors, but also that ethics are negotiable. Such a world seems easy for ChatGPT to corrupt without even trying — unless we raise our standards.”

China conducts first nationwide review of retractions and research misconduct: With growing concerns over increasing number of retractions from Chinense co-authors (>17,000 since 2021!) & the recent fall-out from the Hindawi fiasco, a nationwide self-audit is underway to determine the nature & extent of retractions in the last 3 years in a bid to reclaim the tarnished academic reputation. We plan to follow this story to report back on the resulting “serious measures” to discipline & reprimand the culprits!

CAS 2024 International Journal Early Warning List – Initial Observations Nicko Goncharoff shares his initial thoughts on the CAS 2024 EWL. It lists 24 journals, emphasizing academic misconduct and publishing practices as criteria, with American Scientific and MDPI most affected. CAS aligns with the "Zhuhai Memorandum on Fostering a New Ecosystem for Research Integrity."

Sustainability reads 

How much electricity does AI consume? Future projections suggest AI's energy demand could rival that of entire countries by 2027, raising concerns about sustainability and efficiency. Efforts to mitigate this impact include proposed energy star ratings for AI models and questioning the necessity of AI in certain applications.

Conversational AI and equity through assessing GPT-3’s communication with diverse social groups on contentious topics Interacting with an AI chatbot about climate change and the Black Lives Matter movement shifted views, especially for skeptics of climate consensus and those with negative opinions of BLM.

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🗓️ Upcoming AI Events:

➡️ 2024 SSP Innovation Showcase; FREE webinar by Society for Scholarly Publishing on Thu, Feb 22

➡️ The Heart of the Matter: Copyright, AI Training & LLMs; FREE Town Hall event by Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) on Thu, Feb 29

➡️ AI and Beyond: A vision for the future of publishing technology; FREE webinar for ALPSP members ONLY on March 26

Feedback Corner

If you enjoyed reading the newsletter, sign up or share with someone who may be interested!

Thanks for reading!  Your feedback is important for us to cater to your scholarly needs:

Reader’s Sounding Board

Please share your thoughts, suggestions, and comments: augmentscholpub@gmail.com for us to share with our audience.

➡️ What checks & balances ⚖️ do you have in place for approaching AI-generated content? 

➡️ How are you currently dealing with paper mill content 🗑️?

Until next newsletter,

Chhavi Chauhan and Chirag Jay Patel

Welcome, ScholCom peers,

A Glint of Hope, or Merely Illusion? – For some January ushered in hopes, aspirations, & new beginnings, but for others it zipped past rather unceremoniously with layoffs continuing to pile up. In the last newsletter we talked about the future of work, which continues to be a hot & trending topic, with unfortunately more layoffs in the works. If you were impacted, please feel free to reach out and connect with us, we are happy to make introductions. 

“Swift” Changes, Perhaps? –  Responsible AI took yet another nosedive 🤷🏽‍♀️ with the Swift porn deep fakes taking over social media 🥺This act may have a positive impact down the line 💪🏽 Some influencers do change the world for better 😉

Finally Picking Up Pace – 

• For now, we can rejoice at the fact that the FTC is beginning to crack down on big tech giants with their partnerships & fair trade/competition hammer💥as well as understanding the effect of Gen AI on creative content (well worth a watch!) 

• In the meantime, the UK keeps pushing forward the frontiers of regulation as the European Union’s Artificial Intelligence Act (EU AIA) moved another step closer to becoming a law 🤞🏽 

Something’s Change, Some Never Do – 

• Would you like some 🧀 with that 🍷? OpenAI continues to complain about not being able to make money without using copyright material for free 🙄

• In the meantime, given the growing concerns about the lack of regulation surrounding copyright, creators are developing their own solutions like Nightshade to prevent unauthorized misuse 💪🏽

• With >250K downloads in 5 days, could Nightshade for journal articles be coming soon🤔

Moving On – 

• The continued lack of adequate regulation or position statements from authorities regarding copyrights is concerning & hence our topic to highlight in this newsletter 😆  

• Though the use of GenAI in scientific publishing has both pros & cons, unarguably, the use of GenAI raises ethical & copyright concerns in scientific publications as multiple parties may own the rights (author, publisher, institution). Also, the quality & utility of output from these models is limited by the fact that high quality peer-reviewed content needed for training these models for scientific accuracy & timeliness is often behind paywalls.

• The NYT lawsuit against OpenAI is strong but it could be missing the point while the debate on training GenAI models on copyrighted material is getting hotter. Open AI argued that “based on well-established precedent, the ingestion of copyrighted works to create large language models or other AI training databases generally is a fair use” & the Library Copyright Alliance (LCA) clarified their position by sharing the LCA Principles for Copyright & AI.

Bottom line – 

Despite continued progress on many fronts, in a fresh blow to responsible tech, UK fails to reach consensus on AI copyright code 🛑 

Not all is lost (yet 😆)  Below we list some pressing concerns facing the world of copyright & some emerging solutions to bridge the gaps 🙌🏽

Concern: Scraping the web, stealing data without knowledge, & reusing content without attribution or permission.

Solution: Nightshade could be an interesting tool to study for scholarly publishers. If artists can poison AI models using pixels in an image, what about using the same approach in XML or PDF of a paper or book? 🤔

Concern: Lack of accreditation bodies to certify that consented datasets were used for training the GenAI models

Solution: Fairly Trained, a not-for-profit self-proclaimed accreditation body is on a mission to certify AI tools that leveraged consented data from training them. Who made them the authority remains to be established 🤷🏽‍♀️

Concern: Continued lack of adequate regulation to protect copyright.

Solution: A new bill “may” require AI companies to disclose copyrighted training data; we will follow this closely to report back in the future 🙌🏽

Conundrums – Dual Poll Gallery

Think about it – Comparing Gen AI to the brain solves the copyright conundrum, or does it?

🔎Avi’s AI Tool Spotlight: 

Originality.AI

Originality.AI provides an AI based toolset that helps website owners, Content Marketers, Writers, publishers & editorial teams hit publish with integrity in the world of generative AI.

Their core tools include AI Detection, Plagiarism, Fact-Checking & Readability checking.

Quick Summaries

Taylor Swift deepfakes reignite generative AI controversies: Deepfakes have been around for sometime now, they are getting much better & more convincing with the use of Generative AI. The social media platforms were flooded by fake explicit images of Taylor Swift & George Carlin rose from the dead to do another stand up special thanks to Gen AI. These incidents plus others are shining an unflattering light upon Gen AI, leading to regulatory pressure & causing Americans to distrust AI.

Source: https://www.insiderintelligence.com/content/taylor-swift-deepfakes-reignite-generative-ai-controversies 

FTC launches AI inquiry into Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft, looking at ‘investments & partnerships: FTC Chair Lina Khan confirmed that the FTC is exploring AI deals in the big tech industry. Beware, according to Khan this would be a “market inquiry into the investments & partnerships being formed between AI developers & major cloud service providers.” Spoiler alert: the following companies were named in the discussion: “Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft, Anthropic & OpenAI.”

Creative Economy & Generative AI: FTC recently hosted a virtual roundtable to discuss the influence of Gen AI on creative fields. The idea was to improve their understanding of the impact of various Gen AI tools, which can generate text, images, & audio, on competition as well as business practices across markets.

EU countries give crucial nod to first-of-a-kind Artificial Intelligence law: The European Commission’s Artificial Intelligence Act (AIA) gathered substantial support to move a step closer to becoming a law in the coming months.

OpenAI pleads that it can’t make money without using copyrighted materials for free: The company argues that relying solely on public domain content would be insufficient. However, this request faces opposition, with recent lawsuits from the New York Times & the Authors Guild alleging copyright infringement. OpenAI asserts it complies with copyright laws but is exploring new publisher partnerships. Critics argue such practices threaten writers' livelihoods.

Nightshade, a tool designed to prevent AI models from using a particular piece of art, racks up 250,000 downloads in 5 days after launch. Nightshade alters images to deceive machine learning models. Its popularity underscores artists' desire for protection, transcending global boundaries.

AI companies would be required to disclose copyrighted training data under a new bill: Two lawmakers, Reps. Anna Eshoo (D-CA) & Don Beyer (D-VA), filed a bill, AI Foundation Model Transparency Act. The bill would require developers to provide a disclosure of training data sources & efforts to prevent the model from providing inaccurate information, particularly in critical areas. “If” it passes, this bill would complement the Biden administration's executive order on AI & provide more transparency.

Generative AI Meets Scientific Publishing: The author shares views from industry experts as they reflect about the use of GenAI in the context of the risks & benefits, impact on the peer review process, authorship concerns, improving accessibility, copyright, plagiarism & hallucinations.

Generative AI’s end-run around copyright won’t be resolved by the courts: Output similarity is a distraction: Arvind Narayanan & Sayash Kapoor over at AI Snake Oil write that NYT's lawsuit targets generative AI for verbatim text output, but the bigger problem is unauthorized use of copyrighted material in training. Output similarity distracts from labor appropriation issues. Proposed solution: real-time output filtering. A legal win on output similarity may miss the core problem, requiring broader policy interventions beyond copyright law.

Source: The New York Times

Training Generative AI Models on Copyrighted Works Is Fair Use: Two authors from the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) & American Library Association (ALA) dive deep into the copyright infringement lawsuit between the New York Times & OpenAI & share supporting evidence from the Library Copyright Alliance (LCA) that may strengthen the case for OpenAI. 

AI models that don’t violate copyright are getting a new certification label: A not-for-profit organization, Fairly Trained, will certify AI models that seek permission to use licensed data for training. They have so far added their label to nine Gen AI companies that focus on image, music, & voice generation: Beatoven.ai, Boomy, BRIA.ai, Endel, LifeScore, Rightsify, SOMMS.AI, Soundful, & Tuney. 

UK fails to reach consensus on AI copyright code: Unfortunately, but unsurprisingly, there was no consensus between the UK government (the Intellectual Property Office (IPO)), AI vendors (Microsoft, Google DeepMind, & Stability AI), & creative organizations (the BBC, the British Library, & the Financial Times) to define guidelines pertaining to the use of copyrighted material for training AI models. This may be another quick short-term win for the big tech companies to leverage free content without any guardrails to train their systems as they further monetize & monopolize their efforts.

🤖⚖️🧠Comparing Gen-AI to the brain solves the copyright conundrum: This fascinating article tackles some of the issues pertaining to Gen AI–related copyright discourse: 

• “Copyright protects expression, not ideas,” 

• “Do generative AI operators infringe copyright when they train their models (machine learning) on copyrighted content freely available to the public? NO” 

• “Do gen-AI operators infringe copyright when they use facts, ideas, & styles from copyrighted training data to produce original content? NO” 

• “Do gen-AI operators infringe copyright when they produce output substantially similar to copyrighted training data? YES”

🌎 ♻️ Sustainability reads 🌏🏞️

AMD And Nvidia Will Boil The Oceans: AI's rise won't leave us jobless, but it will be a power hog. The author predicts an insatiable demand for energy as AI explodes, fueling an arms race & potentially catastrophic consequences. While investing in the AI "supply chain" could be lucrative, managing the energy needs is crucial. Are we ready for the AI energy revolution?

The Infinite Cloud Is a Fantasy: The "cloud" guzzles energy & pollutes communities.  Data centers drain water, spew e-waste, & hum like angry bees. The author argues we need a major rethink: break up Big Tech, ditch planned obsolescence, & embrace "cold storage" for long-term data. Ultimately, it's about shifting from instant gratification to sustainable practices. Will the cloud survive the climate storm? 🌍🌡️🥵

🗓️ Upcoming February AI Events:

➡️NISO Plus, Baltimore, Feb 13-14; AI-related sessions:

• Opening Keynote: States of Open AI

• AI Tools in Scholarly Research & Publishing

• AI & Machine Learning in Discovery & Research

• Transparency & Trust in an AI World

• Building or Buying: AI for the Scholarly Ecosystem

• AI & Machine Learning: What to Know & How to Talk about it to Researchers & Patrons

• Ethical Issues Using AI in Scholarly Publishing

• Generative AI & Intellectual Properties: Issues & Options

➡️The Heart of the Matter: Copyright, AI Training & LLMs; FREE event by Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) on Thu, Feb 29

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Chhavi Chauhan & Chirag Jay Patel

Welcome, ScholCom/MedCom peers,

Hopeful Opening – Hopefully, the holidays enabled you to rest, rejoice, reflect, & reenergize to plan towards a productive 2024 🥳

Celebrations – New year is filled with hope, aspirations, & updates on new beginnings 💫 Our heartiest congratulations to all those who embarked on new journeys 🌟 & we sincerely root for all others who are determined to pursue their future goals 💪🏽  

New Trends – Undeniably, 2024 marked a new frigid dawn of AI 🌅 The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas earlier this month reported the continued mindless rampant adoption of AI 🤖 while the ongoing World Economic Forum at Davos focuses on rebuilding trust in AI ⚖️, among other agenda items. Waking us up from the holiday slumbers, the Head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) recently projected that AI will displace 40% jobs globally, with a range of displacements based on location and vocation!

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Ugly Reality – Unfortunately, the trendy mass layoffs that started (and continue daily!) in the tech industry 📉 now extend to all other sectors, including ours; YIKES! The year kick-started with Frontiers announcing laying off 600 of its 2000 employee workforce worldwide in a bid “to stay agile & mission-driven!” 

Hopeful Future – Undoubtedly, we are experiencing strong headwinds 💨 projected to turn the tide 🌊 rather quickly for an industry that is known to otherwise move at glacial speeds 🐢 However, there is hope for emerging opportunities within the workforce as the nature of work itself may evolve; perhaps we can leverage the blueprint proposed by big tech to accelerate AI skills in the current workforce to gain from their historical/institutional knowledge? 

Fearful Thoughts – Our industry witnessed massive amicable consolidation in ‘23 with acquired orgs (so far) retaining their cultures as well as employees 🫱🏽‍🫲🏽 With focus on generating ROI 📈 from investments in companies, personnel, and all processes AI-mediated, a sudden abundance of (laid off) talent seeking a new home, and the predicted replacement of the workforce focusing on knowledge & creative work, perhaps the coming year can be more disruptive than previously anticipated?

Peaceful Coexistence – In the not-so-dystopian world ☮️ there remains hope for retention of human workforce as generative AI and humans learn to coexist for improved efficiencies and potentially better outcomes. 

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Quick Summaries

At a 2024 consumer electronics show, AI gets companies on the same page: The world’s biggest tech convention focussed heavily on AI and shifted the focus from “technology powering experiences to experiences powered by technology.” Of course, there is the underlying chatter about regulation and its potential impact on innovation.

World Economic Forum 2024 kicks off in Davos with “Rebuilding Trust” as key theme: This year’s agenda focuses on trade, climate change, and of course, AI to align with the overall theme of “Rebuilding Trust.” The six critical themes of the event include economic resilience, energy transformation, globalization, productive artificial intelligence, strengthening institutions, and women's health. “The forum explores the impact of the technological revolution, sustainability, and the rise of populism.”

AI will affect 40% of jobs and probably worsen inequality, says IMF head: The head of the IMF cautions countries to “build social safety nets to mitigate the impact on vulnerable workers.” Besides enhancing the performance of the workforce, AI seriously threatens the livelihood of all workers, ranging from 40% to 60% based on location. “This would amplify the increase in income and wealth inequality that results from enhanced capital returns that accrue to high earners,” the IMF report said.

Source: www.imf.org/en/Publications/Staff-Discussion-Notes/Issues/2024/01/14/Gen-AI-Artificial-Intelligence-and-the-Future-of-Work-542379?cid=bl-com-SDNEA2024001.

The next chapter for Frontiers: to the open access tipping point: To continue to embrace open science while integrating AI-enabled innovation, Frontiers layed off 30% of its global workforce for more agility & quality at scale! The pandemic fueled the further rise of Frontiers but as the pandemic fades, research integrity takes center stage, and once paywalled journals embrace OA, Frontiers faces a more competitive and uncertain future.

Figure 6. Frontiers’ monthly papers by region at its peak (Jul 2022 to Sep 2022) and in recent months (May 2023 to Jul 2023). Based on data from OpenAlex and Frontiers’ website 

Source: http://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2023/09/18/guest-post-reputation-and-publication-volume-at-mdpi-and-frontiers-the-1b-question  

Five ways generative AI will transform scholarly publishing David Flanagan who is senior director, generative AI product strategy, Wiley shares the five ways Gen AI will change scholarly publishing. These are “Literature Reviews and Knowledge Synthesis Will Evolve, New Research Avenues Will Emerge, Authors Will Benefit from AI While Writing Research, New Tools to Ensure Research Integrity Will Be Deployed, and The Role of Scholarly Publishers Will Evolve.”

Accelerating AI skills: Preparing the workforce for jobs of the future: This AWS & Access Partnership report explores the emerging AI usage trends in the context of the future workforce in various domains. The report highlights the benefits of adopting AI by both individuals as well as organizations.

Source: https://accesspartnership.com/global-ai-skills-study/

AI-powered digital colleagues are here. Some 'safe' jobs could be vulnerable AI tools like ChatGPT pose a threat to knowledge workers. Policymakers are attempting to address AI's economic impact, emphasizing the need for regulation. The challenge for white-collar workers demands proactive measures for balanced AI integration.

Gen AI and the future of work While enhancing productivity across sectors, it marks a shift in automation's impact, affecting more-educated workers. Despite task automation, gen AI is not expected to significantly reduce workforce size, signifying a transformative era for how we work.

Source: https://www.mckinsey.com/quarterly/the-five-fifty/five-fifty-gen-ai-and-the-future-of-work

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Avi’s AI Tool Spotlight: 

SciencePod: Augmenting research impact with AI summarisation & newsfeeds

SciencePOD specializes in the creation of clear, concise and compelling digital content telling the story of the latest research discoveries. They have developed AI summarisation solutions designed to enhance scientists' productivity and provide access to the latest research findings without spending too much time getting to the key findings.

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Until next newsletter,

Chhavi Chauhan and Chirag Jay Patel

Welcome, ScholCom/MedCom peers,

AI 🤖🤖 has dominated the headlines this year! While the experts worldwide speculate on the AI advances in 2024 to assist & dictate our mundane personal & professional lives, McKinsey summarized the current state of AI in 2023 for individuals as well as organizations!

In the concluding newsletter for ‘23 📆, it seemed befitting to review some AI-based advances 📈 in our domain, which will undoubtedly predict the future of work in 2024 ✨

The scholarly publishing industry is not new to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) mandates & openly embraced the The Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights. STM recently published a white paper on the use of generative AI in scholarly communications. As we may migrate from large language models (LLM) to multi-modal LLMs & retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) to mitigate hallucination & improve accuracy in 2024, the new deal between Axel Springer & Open AI may pave the way for a more reliable LLM for our industry that apparently “values” publishers’ role.

Much remains to be discussed to address the current & emerging copyright issues associated with the use of generative AI. While billions of dollars continue to be poured into AI, our industry remains in need of funds to advance the open access & open science agenda to benefit the readers, researchers, & publishers! Lastly, but quite importantly, the use of generative AI continues to amplify concerns with paper mills as Hindawi & Wiley report losing $35-40 million in revenue in 2023 dealing with these issues!

As we enter into 2024 the scholarly publishing industry is going to need to innovate, experiment, and be involved in the rule making and development of new AI solutions to safeguard all our interests.

Perhaps you may also be interested in hearing views from our peers Avi Staiman on our industry’s readiness to use AI tools & Sabine Louët on harnessing AI in scholarly publishing.

Quick Summaries

What year 2 of the generative AI craze will look like, according to 41 experts: In response to the question “How will generative AI tools like ChatGPT & Midjourney be applied over the next year to best help businesses function more efficiently or assist individual consumers?” respondents (C-suite leaders) identified “education, legal firms, customer service, & marketing departments as among the first to benefit in material ways” from AI.

The state of AI in 2023: Generative AI’s breakout year: Annual McKinsey global survey shares respondent results & explores the areas leveraging generative AI the most, to predict trends for 2024. The survey reveals reveals the rapid adoption of gen AI tools, with one-third of respondents using them regularly and 40% plan increased AI investment due to its advancements.

17 Predictions for 2024: From RAG to Riches to Beatlemania and National Treasures: Nvidia AI leaders share their predictions for the year ahead as we leverage LLMs, multimodal LLMs, & RAGs across industries. Noteworthy applications include AI surgical assistants, generative AI drug discovery, and generative AI shopping advisors. Industrial digitalization combined with generative AI is set to transform various industries.

Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights: Making Automated Systems Work for the American People: The OSTP introduced five principles for development & deployment of automated systems: safe & effective systems, protection against algorithmic discrimination, data privacy, notice & explanation, & human alternatives. The blueprint aims to safeguard civil rights & democratic values.

AI Ethics in Scholarly Communication STM Best Practice Principles for Ethical, Trustworthy and Human-centric AI: STM white paper lists 5 principles for trustworthy & ethical use of AI in scholarly communications. 

New white paper launch: Generative AI in Scholarly Communications: This STM white paper discusses the role of generative AI in scholarly communications, provides guidelines, & makes recommendations for best practices for all stakeholders.

Axel Springer, OpenAI strike "real-time news" deal for ChatGPT: A new merger promises access to more “reliable” content & news for the users by leveraging generative AI. This marks the second major deal for OpenAI with a news publisher, the first one was with The Associated Press. Is this a sign of things to come for scholarly publishers?

The Generative AI Copyright Fight Is Just Getting Started: All stakeholders are up in arms against training LLMs on “their” work.  The copyright world turns murkier in the absence of clearly defined copyright rules pertaining to the use of generative AI & the lack of appropriate attribution.

Euroviews. The culture of sharing is a virtue of science that must be promoted: A cultural shift is needed to make open access & open science mainstream not to mention the need for investment to bridge the existing gaps to enable adoption. 

Hindawi reveals process for retracting more than 8,000 paper mill articles: In 2023, Hindawi retracted >8K articles that amounted to $35-50 million in loss to Wiley. This has put research integrity on the map and has made it the second most talked about issue after AI amongst publishing professionals.

Sign up for the newsletter if you enjoyed reading the newsletter & would like a weekly dose of updates to stay up to date with the latest emerging tools & technologies in the scholarly publishing industry.

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Wishing you Happy Holidays 🥳🍾 as you recharge⚡ reconnect 💞 & reflect back 🤍

Until 2024,

Chhavi Chauhan and Chirag Jay Patel

Share your suggestions and comments: augmentscholpub@gmail.com

Welcome, ScholCom/MedCom peers,

In a fleeting year 📆, generative AI 🤖 has significantly changed the world, including the publishing industry 🗺️ Despite several mainstream conversations, some questions persistently nag us 🤔: Can we trust AI? Is it taking “our” data to monetize 💸 our digital footprint in the future? How do content creators use it ✍🏽 How can we identify AI (generated) content 🔎&, of course, how can we monetize it all💰.

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To address some of our concerns, & after lots of talk 🗣️ & plenty of heartburn ❤️‍🔥, regulators have joined the party 🥳 in the hopes of bringing order, safety, & trust globally⚖️. Regional political as well as religious thrust on controlling AI dominates, often with focus on public safety & data security. Use this global AI tracker to stay abreast with the evolving AI regulation space 💯  

While the Vanderbilt researcher Laura Stark urged to “keep AI rules as nimble as the science they regulate,” a comprehensive white paper explored the responsible use of generative AI in scholarly communications while keeping the interests of various stakeholders in mind.

How is your organization regulating the use of AI? Feel free to email us your thoughts here augmentscholpub@gmail.com 

Quick summaries:

New white paper launch: Generative AI in Scholarly Communications: This follow-up STM white paper discusses the role of generative AI in scholarly communications, provides guidelines, & makes recommendations for best practices for all stakeholders. 

EU agrees ‘historic’ deal with world’s first laws to regulate AI: The landmark deal, negotiated over 37 hours, covers social media, search engines, & major tech players like X, TikTok, & Google. The EU's AI Act places it ahead of the US, China, & the UK in regulating AI, addressing concerns about potential threats to life. The legislation, effective earliest in 2025, bans real-time surveillance & biometric tech except in specific circumstances, adopting a risk-based tiered system for regulation.

World's first AI minister warns against overregulation of AI UAE's AI Minister, Omar Al Olama, warns against excessive AI regulation, comparing it to the Ottoman Sultan's rejection of the printing press. Al Olama emphasizes the importance of embracing AI advancements for societal progress

G7 to agree AI code of conduct for companies: The 11-point code aims to ensure safe & trustworthy AI globally, addressing privacy and security concerns. It encourages companies to assess & mitigate risks throughout the AI lifecycle, publish reports on AI capabilities & limitations, & invest in robust security controls.

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Pope calls for treaty regulating AI, warning of potential for ‘technological dictatorship’: Pope Francis has called for a global treaty to ensure AI does not pose a threat to peace & democracy. 

Executive Order on the Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence: A couple of months ago, the President of the United States of America issued an Executive to enforce a coordinated approach for the safe & responsible use of AI. While praised for progress, critics argue the order lacks teeth and comprehensive preventive measures.  

From China to Brazil, here’s how AI is regulated around the world: The Washington Post piece highlights the developments made by the lawmakers in various countries to address safe use of AI. 

Global AI Regulation Tracker: Learn more about the current state of AI Regulation in a specific country, choose a jurisdiction, or compare and contrast regulations between two jurisdictions. 

Medicine’s Lessons for AI Regulation: Vanderbilt researcher Laura Stark draws parallels with human-subjects research regulations, the history suggests the importance of nimble, ethical AI rules, addressing professional versus government oversight, data ethics, and the need for ongoing updates to match evolving scientific landscapes. Read full article and listen to interview here NEJM

If you enjoyed reading the newsletter and would like a weekly dose of updates to stay up to date with the latest emerging tools & technologies in the scholarly publishing industry, sign up for the newsletter.

Thanks for reading!  Your feedback is important for us to cater to your scholarly needs:

Until next week,

Chhavi Chauhan and Chirag Jay Patel

Share your suggestions and comments: augmentscholpub@gmail.com 

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Welcome, ScholCom/MedCom peers,

The recent firing of the nationally reputed disinformation scholar 👩🏽‍🎓 Dr. Joan Donovan from Harvard University 🎓 due to alleged pressures from the supporting donor 💰, Chan Zuckerberg initiative, has highlighted the complexity & vulnerability of content creation as well as its fair dissemination. For centuries, high quality research 🧪 has relied on funder support 💵 & subsequent content 🧾 dissemination with wide accessibility for greater impact❗ There is no denying that the advent of AI 🤖 has further complicated this interdependence 🤝 with the uncontrolled deluge of AI-generated content & the subsequent dispersal of misinformation/disinformation 🔊 that is often easily accessible 🙆🏽‍♀️.

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Inspired (read outraged 🤬) by this latest unfortunate development, we were tempted to address the intricate & delicate ⚭ union between 🔓 open access (OA) and 🤖 AI this week. 

OA has been the hottest topic of discussion in the scholarly publishing industry for over a decade only to be challenged by AI, the new kid on the block. Of course, the fatal attraction resulted in the marriage of the traditional old-fashioned academic OA to fast-paced unorthodox & rebel AI. Undoubtedly, the honeymoon was fun & exciting with exploration of several new beginnings culminating into the birth of forward looking concepts such as CORD-19.

However, life happens & there is clearly no denying about the alarming pressures like predatory content. Unsurprisingly, both OA and AI begin to impinge upon the existing business models & threaten to affect workflows as well as personnel needs, making them topics of both care & concern for all stakeholders. Unsurprisingly, to maintain this union & potentially benefit from it, Bigtech is exploring ways to monetize in various new ways. 

In this era of information overflow with numerous OA options and platforms for content dissemination, it is imperative both to make the black box AI models more transparent & trustworthy as well as to ensure that open access content is properly vetted & truly reliable.

How are you & your organizations planning to marry OA & AI responsibly & sustain this union over time? You can write to us at augmentscholpub@gmail.com with your thoughts.

Quick Summaries:

Former Harvard disinformation scholar says she was pushed out of her job after college faced pressure from Facebook: CNN shines light on the intricate web of relationships between research, researchers, institutional policies, & funder/donor support that dictates the fate of research, researcher, & what content gets disseminated.

The Relationship Between Open Access Science and AI: This Editorial from Azo Robotics dives into the link between OA and AI & highlights how both can help with the advancement of scientific discovery & innovation.

AI is Changing Open Access Science: This MDPI blog explores avenues that can be exploited to help advance OA by leveraging AI. 

An open automation system for predatory journal detection: This Nature article proposes an academic journal predatory checking (AJPC) system to identify predatory content & aid researchers in identifying a trusted home for publishing their research. 

 Approaching Artificial Intelligence and Open Research in Sync: Opportunities and Challenges: This The Scholarly Kitchen article discusses the link between open research and AI and how they may further enable adoption of each other in the scholarly publishing industry. 

Harnessing open access publishing with artificial intelligence: Microsoft previously focused on scientific advancement by offering Microsoft Academic search tools & Microsoft Academic Graph to keep up with the deluge of information in many fields of study. 

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❗Are you familiar with Subscribe to Open (S2O): A Transformative Approach to Open Access❓

📢 S2O is an innovative economic model designed to transition scholarly journals from traditional subscription models to open access (OA), making research freely available to everyone. Check out these early adopters in the S2O space: Annual Reviews, American Society for Microbiology; IWA Publishing; AIP Publishing; BioOne, along with a constantly expanding list of Subscribe to Open (S2O) journals.

If you enjoyed reading the newsletter and would like a weekly dose of updates to stay up to date with the latest emerging tools & technologies in the scholarly publishing industry, sign up for the newsletter.

Thanks for reading!  Your feedback is important for us to cater to your scholarly needs, please share your suggestions and comments: augmentscholpub@gmail.com

Until next week,

Chhavi Chauhan and Chirag Jay Patel