Call for papers for Special issue on Artificial Intelligence in Scholarly Communication & Libraries
Dr Raj Kumar Bhardwaj, St Stephen’s College, University of Delhi, India, and
Professor Naresh Agarwal, School of Library and Information Science, Simmons University, Boston, USA
Artificial intelligence has been impacting all walks of life, with people struggling to make sense of it all. With changes in the AI landscape happening rapidly, sometimes in weeks, people are reacting with a range of emotions - from open and welcoming to cautious. With both the opportunities and challenges posed by AI, there is a lot of discussion on the responsible use and deployment of AI. AI principles focus on
transparency in data sources, adhering to privacy and copyrights, fairness and inclusivity. The difficulty for developers of the technology is how to convert these principles into reality. There are technical, social, ethnic, and economic challenges posed by AI, ranging from integrity to content to bias and fairness to transparency and accountability to privacy concerns to inequality and job displacement to security and
reliability to regulation and governance.
All these challenges impact both scholarly communication and libraries. The majority of leading journals have advocated for the disclosure of the use of AI tools in scholarly writing and, in certain cases, prohibited the use of generative AI, such as AI- generated images, text in manuscripts, etc. The academic community is engaged in finding ways for the ethical use of AI in scholarly communication. The library is a major
partner in scholarly workflow. Librarians are looking for ways to integrate AI responsibly and effectively in library services. Library professionals have a greater role in educating the academic community in the ethical and responsible use of AI in scholarly communication.
This special issue is an attempt to understand the various dimensions of the use of AI, its benefits and risks, and its responsible use in scholarly communication and/or library services. Provided below are examples of possible research topics in the broad area of AI in scholarly communication and libraries.
Possible research topics
- Generative artificial intelligence in academic writing
- Responsible and ethical use of artificial intelligence
- AI governance, framework and policies
- Principles of artificial intelligence
- Challenges in scholarly communication for researchers - writing, finding good journals, surviving the review process, etc.
- Challenges in scholarly communication for journal editors - finding reviewers, financial sustenance, growing research impact, etc.
- AI integration in scholarly workflow - literature review, data visualization and analytics
- AI in research and scholarly communication
- AI literacy in higher educational institutions (HEIs)
- AI integration in libraries
- AI and copyright laws
Tentative deadlines:
Author submissions by February 28, 2026
Review period: April 30, 2026
Notification to authors: May 15, 2026
Final revisions by authors and Acceptance: June 30, 2026
Online Publishing: 01 September 2026
Author(s) is requested to send their original manuscript and undertaking certificate to Guest Editors at Email address: raajchd[at]gmail.com (Dr. Raj K Bhardwaj) OR narresh.agarwal[at]simmons.edu (Professor Naresh Agarwal)
