This chapter will explore how blockchain and AI technology will address the current problems in the current publishing workflow including the author manuscript submission systems, peer review process, editing, production process, and dissemination process. Further, after the article has published, blockchain and AI technologies will allow all of the stakeholders in the value chain to benefit from a more efficient and effective upstream and downstream publishing process. This chapter will explore rights and royalties, anti-piracy and ebooks, and how blockchain and AI will create new research and business opportunities.
TopManuscript Submission
The author's manuscript's submission is the first step in what some authors have characterized as a long and demanding process. A critical fundamental question is why does the peer review process takes so long. One study stated that the average review process of 74 days. Secondly, that that manuscripts were returned 1.73 times per manuscript. One of the critical areas of discrepancy was grammar. In addition to the papers having to be sent back to the author once the article was deemed acceptable for review, the average review time was 22 days (Cornelius, 2012).
Blockchain and AI can significantly enhance this first step of the article submitted by the author. Regarding AI, at least two companies have implemented tools for the researcher that would help them submit a manuscript with new grammar and the other company to check their manuscript to determine if it meets the Open Science, Integrity, and Reproducibility requirements.
The first company Writefull uses Artificial Intelligence, corrects grammar, punctuation, word use, and more - tailored to research writing. Writefull's suggestions appear to the right of your text. You can accept or reject them with a single click. Writefull recently completed a program with Hindawi. The pilot, which began on December 9, allowed authors to use Writefull before submission to Hindawi journals. Uptake, particularly from Chinese and US authors, has been impressive. To date, over 1,600 manuscripts have been submitted for revision to the service. I
Hindawi's objective is to improve the service to their authors, editors, and peer reviewers. Writefull has excellent potential as a tool that could help to level the playing field for researchers from non-English speaking countries by ensuring good research doesn't fall at the language hurdle (Kelesidou, 2020) This service is an excellent example of how AI can help improve the scholarly research process.