Workshop 2.6 | The Editor in the Age of Generative AI: Past, Present, and Possible Futures
Date: Thursday, 2 July 2026, 16:00-18:00
Location: R93
Speakers:
Christina Lentz, UIT The Arctic University of Norway, Norway
Tiernan O’Sullivan, Tilburg University, The Netherlands
Leticia Antunes Nogueira, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway
Organised by the LIBER Quarterly Journal
Editorial work carries substantial responsibility, given the considerable power editors hold to select, shape or reject scholarly contributions throughout the editorial process.
As generative AI (GenAI) tools have proliferated into many aspects of academic work, editorial practices are undergoing rapid change. Editors and those with an interest in a more open publishing landscape are confronted with a range of questions related to quality control and research integrity (Bjelobaba et al., 2024), strain on peer review (Ebadi et al., 2025), authorship and accountability, editorial workflows and decision-making (Moorhouse et al., 2025), equity and global inclusion, data privacy and confidentiality, governance, policy and standards (Taeihagh, 2025). Editorial considerations such as these carry long-term epistemic effects and influence whether growing scientific output facilitated by these technological tools translates to substantive advancements in understanding (Kapoor and Narayanyan, 2025).
Drawing on our experience as academic journal editors and research library professionals, this workshop will explore how GenAI intersects with editorial and institutional missions, and how such technologies might be integrated into publishing workflows in ways that are ethically responsibly, maintain high qualitative standards, and enhance recourse efficiency. It examines which aspects of editorial workflows are already being affected, how emerging AI applications may further reshape editorial roles, and what these developments mean for quality assurance, accountability, and editorial autonomy.
Methodologically, the workshop combines retrospective and forward-looking perspectives. We begin by revisiting longstanding challenges in editorial work to assess whether – and in what ways – current GenAI-related issues represent a qualitative shift. We invite participants to share their own experiences and challenges. Building on this analysis, we employ future-thinking approaches (Inayatullah, 2008) to explore possible, probable, and preferable futures. Rather than predicting a single outcome, participants will collaboratively identify trends, drivers of change, and key uncertainties, and examine how different combinations might shape future editorial practices.
Goals of the workshop:
The workshop aims to challenge technologically deterministic assumptions or views of how Gen AI will influence scholarly publishing and foster long-term, systems-oriented thinking. By drawing on the collective experience of the LIBER conference attendees, we will use this environment to support the development of resilient, proactive, and ethically informed strategies for scholarly publishing. It will prepare decision-makers in research libraries, academic journals, and related publishing institutions to navigate AI’s editorial disruptions with resilience, ethics, and strategic foresight.
References:
Bjelobaba, S., Waddington, L., Perkins, M., Foltýnek, T., Bhattacharyya, S., & Weber-Wulff, D. (2024). Research Integrity and GenAI: A Systematic Analysis of Ethical Challenges Across Research Phases. ArXiv:2412.10134.
Ebadi, S., Nejadghanbar, H., Salman, A. R., & Khosravi, H. (2025). Exploring the Impact of Generative AI on Peer Review: Insights from Journal Reviewers. Journal of Academic Ethics, 23(3), 1383–1397. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10805-025-09604-4
Kapoor, S. & Narayanyan, A. (2025). Could AI slow science? Confronting the Production-Progress Paradox. AI as Normal Technology. https://www.normaltech.ai/p/could-ai-slow-science
Inayatullah, S. (2008). Six pillars: futures thinking for transforming. Foresight, 10(1), 4–21. https://doi.org/10.1108/14636680810855991
Moorhouse, B. L., Consoli, S., & Curle, S. M. (2025). Generative AI and the future of writing for publication: insights from applied linguistics journal editors. Applied Linguistics Review, 16(6), 2721–2747. https://doi.org/10.1515/applirev-2025-0021
Taeihagh, A. (2025). Governance of Generative AI. Policy and Society, 44(1), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1093/polsoc/puaf001