A suite of automated tools is now available to assist with peer review but humans are still in the driver's seat.
Automated tools could help take the slog out of peer review. Credit: Mary Evans/Classicstock/H. Armstrong Roberts |
Most researchers have good reason to grumble about peer review: it is time-consuming and error-prone, and the workload is unevenly spread, with just 20% of scientists taking on most reviews.
Now peer review by artificial intelligence (AI) is promising to improve the process, boost the quality of published papers — and save reviewers time.
A handful of academic publishers are piloting AI tools to do anything from selecting reviewers to checking statistics and summarizing a paper’s findings.