The emerging submission crisis in behavioral science

Area of Science:

• Behavioral Science
• Scientific Publishing
• Research Integrity

Background:

• The scientific system contends with issues like paper mills and citation manipulation.
• A significant rise in annual manuscript submissions is straining the capacity of editors and reviewers.
• This increase is occurring despite the proliferation of new scientific journals.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify and discuss the emerging problem of overwhelming manuscript submission volumes in scientific publishing.
• To analyze the factors contributing to the accelerated pace of behavioral science research and manuscript preparation.
• To explore the implications of this submission crisis for editors, reviewers, and early-career researchers.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of personal observations and conversations from 2025 regarding journal submission trends.
• Identification of key factors accelerating research and manuscript writing in behavioral science.
• Discussion of the impact of large language models on manuscript quality and submission volume.

Main Results:

• A substantial increase in manuscript submissions to individual journals has been observed.
• Advances in automation, large datasets, and large language models (LLMs) have accelerated research.
• LLMs are identified as a primary driver of polished-looking, yet empirically weak, submissions, increasing editor/reviewer strain.

Conclusions:

• The current submission crisis is characterized by superficial contributions due to LLM-generated manuscripts.
• A potential future crisis may arise from genuinely accelerated scientific progress driven by automation.
• The adoption of AI tools to support editor and reviewer workflows is proposed as a potential solution.