Springer Nature has launched a new AI-driven tool to help editors and peer reviewers by automating a number of editorial quality checks and alerting editors to potentially unsuitable manuscripts so that they can be held back from peer review.
Developed in-house, this is the latest AI tool planned for integration into Springer Nature’s next generation article submission and processing platform, Snapp, following the inclusion in 2024 of two AI tools to identify fake content. Working in collaboration with researchers and designed to seamlessly integrate with Snapp, it is currently being tested and verified on over 100 OA journals, including Scientific Reports the largest OA journal in the world, and across over 100,000 submissions.
The AI tool supports editors and peer reviewers by quickly addressing manuscript quality issues, reducing the number of amendments needed, and maintaining the integrity of a high-quality publishing process. In each instance, a human expert double-checks the results before a final decision is made. It marks the next phase of the publisher’s investment in emerging technologies to enhance the publishing experience for researchers, editors and reviewers, all of which are developed in line with its AI principles.
Chief Publishing Officer, Harsh Jegadeesan, said: “Publishing trusted research is at the heart of what we do. As the volume of research increases, we are excited to see how we can best use AI to support our authors, editors and peer reviewers, simplifying their ways of working whilst upholding quality. By carefully introducing new ways of checking papers to enhance research integrity and support editorial decision-making we can help speed up everyday tasks for researchers, freeing them up to concentrate on what matters to them – conducting research.”
14 suitability assessment steps are currently supported before a manuscript is sent out to review including data availability statements, human and animal ethics, clinical trials and misuse threats.
More on Springer Nature’s approach to AI and its use within our communities can be found here.
