Revue3.0's intervention at the États généraux des revues scientifiques du Québec

• Date: May 8, 2025
• Location: Espace Rodier – 914 Notre-Dame Street West, Montreal, QC H3C 1J9 and online
• Time: 9:00 AM
• Trainer: Alexia Schneider
• Training Title : AI and Scholarly Journals: Exploring the Automation of Reviewer Selection

As part of the first États généraux des revues scientifiques du Québec organized by the Réseau Circé, Alexia Schneider, accompanied by Marcello Vitali-Rosati, led a training workshop on the uses of artificial intelligence in the editorial practices of scholarly journals, with a particular focus on automating the selection of reviewers.

The workshop guided participants through a set of techniques aimed at automating this complex task. It began with the formulation of queries to the OpenAlex database, experimenting with different types of textual similarity measures, which were then refined using Python libraries specialized in semantic distance calculations. The session also introduced the use of small-scale language models, presenting AI solutions that go beyond conversational approaches.

By proposing automation approaches that offer greater control over algorithmic processes, the training challenged the very definition of artificial intelligence and the supposedly clear boundaries separating it from other computational techniques. Highlighting the continuities rather than the breaks between various algorithmic methods, the workshop invited participants to critically reflect on the technical and conceptual choices involved in integrating automated processes into scholarly publishing.

Workshop Description

In this exploratory workshop, participants will be introduced to various tasks in scholarly editorial practices that are already assisted by AI. The session will also explore automation possibilities beyond large language models (LLMs), using the concrete case of reviewer selection.