IJMSC Insights: AI and Journal Publishing

Have you taken our survey yet? We want your opinions and experiences!

As technology advances, artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming the landscape of medicine, reaching into all areas of multiple sclerosis practice, including clinical care, research, and journal publication.

The possibilities of AI use in research abound as, with machine learning offering the ability to extract and summarize information from large datasets and to remotely monitor patients, collecting real-world, real-time data. How will trials and interventions be transformed by the power of AI?

A very practical use of AI, and a particular area of concern for International Journal of Multiple Sclerosis Care (IJMSC) editors and staff, is for research writing and publication. We've long relied on a form of AI to check our grammar and spelling, but now it can be used to write outlines or suggest phrasing, even compose methods or conclusion sections. Along the same lines, AI can help authors who speak English as a second language to bypass translation services and provide clearer and more natural phrasing that may be the key to paper acceptance.

AI cannot be an author according to the guidelines of the professional organizations that IJMSC follows, including the Committee on Publication Ethics and the World Association of Medical Editors. But what about research assistant? We've seen and heard the cautionary tales of AI changing data in figures and tables or hallucinating references. Can a prompt be made specific enough to yield the correct outcome?

AI may not yet be reliable, but it is tempting to want an easy fix for formatting or language concerns. The day when we will be able to trust it or tell it exactly what we need may be sooner than we think.

We asked the editors of the IIJMSC to share their fears and hopes about AI in the area of journal publication in the video above. Francois Bethoux, MD; Alissa Willis, MD; and Elizabeth Gromisch, PhD, add their perspectives to this ever-expanding conversation. Watch the video and then please take a moment to participate in our survey to share your own feelings and experiences. Your input is vital to helping us understand our evolving field. The future of AI in multiple sclerosis care, research, and publication is a conversation in which we all need to participate.

AI and MS Care/Research Survey