Video: Rethinking Peer Review in the AI Era with Maria Machado

Peer Review Week 2025 has truly given us a lot to think about! With the theme focusing on how AI is reshaping peer review, we decided to ask top industry experts on their view of what role AI is likely to play in the future of peer review. Watch the video to know what Maria Machado (Editor in Chief, Science Diffusion) has to say about how AI can support peer review.

Q: Where do you see the greatest potential for AI to support peer reviewers today?

A:  Okay. Hi. So, where do you see the greatest potential for AI to support peer reviewers today? I think AI has great potential mainly for helping reviewers to go through the literature that’s already there and pick out the ways in which the research they’re reviewing fits—or doesn’t fit—within the current thinking in the subject. And also to see if it’s novel, if there are any important research gaps that are missing. What AI I don’t think is still able to do is to capture the nuance of some of the context that’s there. So, you can’t just get AI to do a literature review for you and expect it to match the intro of an article that you’re reviewing.

Q: Have you seen any real-world examples where AI tools helped—or hurt—the peer review process?

A: Well, I have seen some examples of where AI tools that have been created for very clear purposes. There are a couple of AI tools that have been created for to help both reviewers and authors to go through EQUATOR network reporting guideline checklists. And those are helpful because it will let both authors and reviewers know if there’s any flagrant gap that’s missing. If the authors need to fill out any more or detail, any more information that they have missed in their papers. It is quite important because a lot of the time I see that the same types of information are missing that people do not abide by the same items in reporting checklists. And that’s basically because you as an author you will write a paper like you’re used to writing a paper and as a reviewer you’re reviewing a paper like you’re used to reviewing your paper. It’s good to jolt our biases and prejudices and make sure that we are complying to what we say we are.

Q: Should peer reviewers be trained to work alongside AI tools? What kind of literacy do they need?

A: Yes, I think everyone should be trained to work alongside AI tools in whatever it is that they’re doing. Either reviewers, researchers, academic publishing professionals, or whatever kinds of professionals—you should be trained to work alongside AI tools that are relevant to you. You don’t need to be an expert in everything, but it’s good that you find something that works to alleviate your own burden and that you can trust. It’s very important that you know and that you’re trained to spot the tools that are correct for you, that work for what for your purposes, and try a couple of different ones. And if it doesn’t work, if you see that there are gaps or errors, try something different. There are a lot of tools being developed right now and they are just that, they are being developed. They are still works in progress. So, it’s good that a couple are being tried on and that you provide feedback to the developers. A lot of the time those developers are still asking for feedback on tools and what they can do differently. So that is a great opportunity for reviewers and authors to get involved in development of the tools that they will need for the purposes that they use them. 

Q: Do you think disclosing the use of AI in peer review will become standard practice in the future? Why or why not?

A: I think that it will become standard practice as much as it is standard practice to disclose the version or the software that you use for statistical analysis. It is normal to use it, but you still have to state which ones you used and how you use them. AI is not just a concept. Generative AI tools are being developed. They are tools. They can help you. They cannot do the work for you. So I think it will be great that we disclose tools. I think that it’ll be great that the tools have different versions that you can point to. And I think that yes, that’s exactly the place where we’re going.

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