PLOS-LLM: can and should AI enable a new paradigm of scientific knowledge sharing?

Abstract

Most people agree that the traditional academic publishing model is not working. Even editors of prestigious journals have been saying this for some time. There is, however, less consensus about which of the many problems are most pressing. Is it paywalls limiting access, especially for those outside of rich countries/institutions? Or is the inefficiency inherent in reformatting papers as they bounce between dated online submission systems with login systems from the last century? Perhaps the key problem is the way that journal editors, with variable urgency, decide what to publish in their prestigious journals, juggling commercial pressures to attract attention/clicks/advertising with attempts to identify what research is most important/transformational? Add in that the market is dominated by a tiny number of publishers in 2013 for example, over half of all published papers were published by just five publishers and it is perhaps unsurprising that its getting harder and harder to attract peer reviewers, further slowing the system down.