Journal editors are already aware that AI poses a significant challenge to the integrity of their journals.

AI can be used to exploit frailties in the existing system. The principal flaw is that academic journals rely upon free labour and goodwill from academics who act as editors and peer reviewers (not to mention also the authors, library resources and so on). Editors make the ultimate decisions on which articles ought to be published and will triage articles before sending them for peer review. But they (we) are heavily reliant upon peer reviewers to provide an assessment of the quality of the underlying research.

Do peer reviewers check to ensure the plausibility of all statements in an article or check all footnotes to ensure that they are accurate? Sometimes. But sometimes not. They may not see that as being their job – and ultimately it is the author’s article and they who will need to stand over everything that they say. Serious authors take these things seriously.

But in an age of AI, authors may be tempted to rely upon AI to summarise the literature or even propound arguments for them. They may use AI to help with citations to support arguments they are making. And who checks that? If the author themselves do not, and the peer reviewers do not, and the editors do not have the time, then there is only one further line of defence – the copy editor.

Many journals have shifted away from serious copyediting for cost reasons and either rely upon the authors themselves or copyeditors who only check grammar/spelling and fidelity to the style guide. There are flaws with the US law review system, but one definite advantage it has is that everything tends to get checked – both above the line (i.e. in the text) and below the line (i.e. in the footnotes).

As a member of the editorial board at the British Tax Review and incoming General Editor, one of the things that I am most proud of is that we have always taken copyediting seriously. Anybody who has published with us will know the lengths that our copyeditors go to ensure the highest quality of scholarship.

So if there is a plea to publishers in an age of AI – it is to invest in copyediting!