Étiquette : Blanca Rodríguez-Bravo

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Are AI-Empowered Early Career Researchers Proving To Be the Harbingers of Change?

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

The Harbingers longitudinal study of early career researchers and their pathfinding scholarly communication attitudes and practices is a decade old and much of its findings have been published in this journal.

We are now moving on to the new generation of researchers—Gen-Z and it is fitting that we draw things to a close by summing up whether our largely millennial researchers have proved to be the harbingers of change.

We focus on the data from the last two rounds of interviewing, conducted in the last 2 years, at a time when AI was (increasingly) propelling change. These two rounds covered over 150 ECRs from all subject fields and from China, Malaysia, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Spain, UK and US.

It was found that ECRs are, indeed, at the forefront of the technological adaptation in research, actively exploring the potential of AI and new communication channels. However, their ability to be truly transformative was constrained by a traditional, quantitative evaluation/reputational system.

This could change with Gen-Z because there were ECRs in their twenties included in our previous studies and they displayed higher practical integration of AI tools and appeared to be more strategically adopting AI for efficiency and career advancement.

URL : Learned Publishing – 2026 – Nicholas – Are AI‐Empowered Early Career Researchers Proving To Be the Harbingers of Change

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1002/leap.2099

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If You Really Want to Know How AI Is Changing Peer Review Talk to Early Career Researchers

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

The Harbingers study of early career researchers (ECRs), their work life and scholarly communications, began by studying generational—Millennial—change (H1 c.2016), then pandemic change (H2 c2020) and is now investigating yet another: artificial intelligence (H3 2024–).

We report here on a scoping pilot study, which looks at the impact of AI on peer review from over 150 international ECRs from all disciplines. The data were collected by open-ended, in-depth interviews, but being a convenience sample the findings need to be treated with caution.

We find that ECRs are displaying a complex, shifting attitude towards the integration of AI into peer review, characterised by cautious optimism on the one hand and scepticism on the other. ECRs are already reporting specific instances of AI increasingly influencing reviewing practices: both potentially beneficial applications and actual misuse.

AI is seen as a new systemic threat, potentially worsening the alleged exploitative nature of publishing if adopted without ethical guidelines.

URL : If You Really Want to Know How AI Is Changing Peer Review Talk to Early Career Researchers

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1002/leap.2082

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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