Étiquette : Blanca Rodríguez-Bravo

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Do Early Career Researchers Consider AI as an Opportunity or a Threat? A Pathfinding Study

Authors : David Nicholas, David Clark,  Abdullah Abrizah, John Akeroyd, Eti Herman, Jorge Revez, Blanca Rodríguez-Bravo, Marzena Swigon, Tatyana Polezhaeva, Anne Gere

The article presents the latest (2025) iteration of the Harbingers longitudinal project on early career researchers (ECRs), artificial intelligence (AI) and scholarly communications. In conversation with a purposive and diverse sample of more than 60 ECRs in six countries and numerous subjects, we present an evaluation of a pressing issue: what impact will AI have on their work and career?

An important issue is that widespread media speculation suggests that it is entry-level positions that will be hit hardest by AI. While ECRs were asked 50 plus questions during interviews, none were directly asked about changes to job security and employment prospects, yet much of relevance was volunteered in answering related AI questions.

Adding a new methodological dimension to the Harbingers project, we employed AI (NotebookLM) for an initial qualitative analysis of the interview data, with findings reviewed and corrected by the national interviewers. We conclude that AI is a double-edged sword which has huge potential as well as posing significant challenges.

The AI-assisted analysis proved effective at identifying broad themes, though human oversight was essential to capture nuance, differences between cohorts, and unusual cases. Finally, given that we were working with a select and relatively small sample to inform a larger study, the data should be seen as illuminating and filling a research lacuna, rather than a definitive result in a fast-changing field.

URL : Do Early Career Researchers Consider AI as an Opportunity or a Threat? A Pathfinding Study

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1002/leap.2068

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Is the Scholarly System Breaking Down?

Authors : David Nicholas, Eti Herman, John Akeroyd, Abdullah Abrizah, Marzena Swigon, Jorge Revez, Blanca Rodríguez-Bravo, Tatyana Polezhaeva

On the back of countless warnings that the scholarly system is seriously being threatened, indeed, upended by fraud, fakery and numerous bad practices, we set out to establish the extent to which this is true by asking the people who are, arguably, in the best position to know—early career researchers (ECRs).

This is because they are research workhorses operating very much at the frontline of research; there are around a million of them and they represent the future. To this end, a convenience sample of 62 international ECRs from several disciplines were depth-interviewed about bad and questionable practices and such like.

An extensive literature review was also conducted to provide a broader context for and an expansion of the interview data. It was found that the system is not totally broken, but breaking it certainly is. It is under pressure and changes, such as whitelists, local journals and national boards/policies, are all slow to come about while the fakers can work very quickly.

URL : Is the Scholarly System Breaking Down?

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1002/leap.2060

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AI And the Editors’ Ghost: Who Is the Writer Now?

Authors : David Clark, David Nicholas, Abdullah Abrizah, John Akeroyd, Jorge Revez, Blanca Rodríguez-Bravo, Marzena Swigon, Tatyana Polezhaeva, Anne Gere, Eti Herman

This an exploration of the use of AI in research and writing. It builds upon the ‘Harbingers’ project, an international and longitudinal study of early career researchers (ECRs) and scholarly communication.

In the fourth phase of the project, we returned to the theme of AI, in particular AI as ‘ghostwriter’. Our sources are transcripts of conversational, open-form interviews with over 60 ECRs from Britain, Malaysia, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Russia, and other countries.

For an initial analysis of the transcripts, we used Google NotebookLM. An overarching and thematic summary of the data was produced in minutes, that would otherwise have occupied our research team for weeks. The unprompted text, immediately plausible and coherent, was regarded by all national interviewers as impressive.

Here, using a relatively small, convenience sample, we compare the AI generated summaries both against our original data and those first impressions. We reflect upon our own experience of using AI and that of our interviewees.

This paper is about how we used AI as an experiment, our reaction to it, how that chimes, resonates, echoes the experiences of the ECRs. It is a calibration for our future data analysis.

URL : Learned Publishing – 2026 – Clark – AI And the Editors Ghost Who Is the Writer Now

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1002/leap.2051

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The scholarly communication attitudes and behaviours of Gen – Z researchers: a pathfinding study

Authors : David Nicholas, David Clark, Abdullah Abrizah, Jorge Revez, Blanca Rodrí guez-Bravo, Marzena Swigon, John Akeroyd

In preparation for a major study of Generation–Z early career researchers’ (ECRs) scholarly communications attitudes and practices we report on how different Gen-Z researchers included in our earlier studies of ECRs were.

It is a qualitative, pilot study that covered a convenience sample of around 30 Gen-Z ECRs from 8 countries and all subjects and compared to 120 of their older colleagues. Conversational, in-depth interviews lasting an hour or more were the main form of data collection.

An AI analysis, employing Claude AI, was used both to provide an initial analysis of the data and also assess the published literature on the topic. The findings were that there is enough evidence to suggest that there are enough differences between Gen-Z and their Millennial colleagues – even though all are ECRs – to merit further research.

Younger researchers in particular appear to be strategically adopting AI for efficiency and career advancement, while older researchers possess heightened awareness, and caution, regarding the philosophical and ethical consequences of technological transformation in scholarly communication.

URL : The scholarly communication attitudes and behaviours of Gen – Z researchers: a pathfinding study

DOI : https://doi.org/10.33774/coe-2026-s8b36

 

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Where Will AI Take Scholarly Communication? Voices From the Research Frontline

Authors : David Nicholas, Blanca Rodríguez-Bravo, Abdullah Abrizah, Jorge Revez, Eti Herman, David Clark, Marzena Swigon, Jie Xu, Anthony Watkinson

Early career researchers (ECRs) are in an ideal position to soothsay. Yet, much of what we know about the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) comes from vested interest groups, such as publishers, tech companies and industry leaders, which are strong on hyperbole, are superficial and, at best, narrow surveys.

This paper seeks to redress this by providing deep empirical data from researchers, allowing us to hear researchers’ views and ‘voices’. The data comes from a project, which focuses on the impact of AI on scholarly communications.

From this study, we report on the perceived transformations to the scholarly communications system by AI and other forces. We were especially interested in discovering what future ECRs foresaw for the established pillars of the system—journals and libraries.

The interview-based study covers a convenience sample of 91 ECRs from all disciplines and half a dozen countries. The main findings being that while the large majority thought there would be a transformation there was no consensus as to what a transformation would look like, but there was agreement on it being one shaped by AI.

The future appears rosy for journals, but less so for libraries and, importantly, for most ECRs, too.

URL : Where Will AI Take Scholarly Communication? Voices From the Research Frontline

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1002/leap.2008

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The impact of generative AI on the scholarly communications of early career researchers: An international, multi-disciplinary study

Authors : David Nicholas, Marzena Swigon, David Clark, Abdullah Abrizah, Jorge Revez, Eti Herman, Blanca Rodríguez Bravo, Jie Xu, Anthony Watkinson

The Harbingers study of early career researchers (ECRs), their work life and scholarly communications, began by studying generational—Millennial—change (c.2016), then moved to pandemic change (c.2020) and is now investigating another potential agent of change: artificial intelligence (2024–). We report here on a substantial scoping pilot study that looks at the impact of AI on the scholarly communications of international ECRs and, extends this to the arts and humanities.

It aims to fill the knowledge gap concerning ECRs whose millennial mindset may render them especially open to change and, as the research workhorses they are, very much in the frontline. The data was collected via in-depth interviews in China, Malaysia, Poland, Portugal, Spain and (selectively) the United Kingdom/United States. The data show ECRs to be thinking, probing and, in some cases, experimenting with AI.

There was a general acceptance that AI will be responsible for the growth of low-quality scientific papers, which could lead to a decline in the quality of research. Scholarly integrity and ethics were a big concern with issues of authenticity, plagiarism, copyright and poor citation practices raised. The most widespread belief was AI would prove to be a transformative force and would exacerbate existing scholarly disparities and inequalities.

URL : The impact of generative AI on the scholarly communications of early career researchers: An international, multi-disciplinary study

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1002/leap.1628

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The pandemic and changes in early career researchers’ career prospects, research and publishing practices

Authors : Hamid R. Jamali, David Nicholas, David Sims, Anthony Watkinson, Eti Herman, Cherifa Boukacem-Zeghmouri, Blanca Rodrıguez-Bravo, Marzena Świgoń, Abdullah Abrizah, Jie Xu, Carol Tenopir , Suzie Allard

Introduction

As part of the Harbnger-2 project, this study aimed to discover the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on junior researchers’ work-life, career prospects, research and publishing practices and networking.

Methods

An online international survey of 800 early career researchers (ECRs) was conducted in 2022. A questionnaire was developed based on three rounds of interviews and distributed using multiple channels including publishers, social media, and direct email to ECRs.

Results

The impact of the pandemic on career prospects, morale, job security, productivity, ability to network and collaborate, and quality and speed of peer review has on the whole been more negative than positive.

A quarter of ECRs shifted their research focus to pandemic-related topics and half of those who did, benefited largely due to increased productivity and impact. The majority worked remotely/from home and more than two-thirds of those who did so benefitted from it. While virtual or hybrid conferences have been embraced by the majority of ECRs, around a third still preferred face-to-face only conferences.

The use of library online platforms, Sci-Hub, ResearchGate, Google Scholar and smartphone to search and access full-text papers increased. ECRs prioritised journals with fast submission procedures for the publishing of their papers and spent more time on increasing the visibility of their research. Fees were a problem for publishing open access.

Conclusion

Although, generally, the pandemic negatively impacted many aspects of ECRs’ work-life, certain research areas and individuals benefited from being more appreciated and valued, and, in some cases, resulted in increased resources, better productivity and greater impact.

Changes, such as the use of digital technologies and remote working created new opportunities for some ECRs. While continuing work flexibility and hybrid conferences might benefit some ECRs, institutions should also take measures to help those ECRs whose career and productivity have been adversely impacted.

URL : The pandemic and changes in early career researchers’ career prospects, research and publishing practices

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0281058