A Discussion with Prof. Alejandro C. Frery
Written by Kevin Corbley
Publishing is one of many fields experiencing seismic changes due to the new era of readily accessible Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools. Fortunately for GRSS, few people are better prepared to deal with the shifting landscape than Prof. Alejandro C. Frery, Vice President of Publications for IEEE-GRSS.
Currently working as a professor in the School of Mathematics and Statistics at the Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, Prof. Frery holds a PhD in applied computing, a MSc in applied mathematics, with undergraduate degree in electrical and electronic engineering. Within GRSS publishing, he started as a reviewer for IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters, which he subsequently joined as associate editor and then editor in chief in 2014.
Upon becoming a member of the GRSS Administration Committee, Prof. Frery served in key editorial roles such as Future Publications Chair and Plagiarism Chair. He was named VP of all GRSS Publications in 2023, responsible for many periodicals, including Letters, IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Magazine, and IEEE Journal in Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observation and Remote Sensing.
Speaking as a researcher and teacher, Prof. Frery sees AI offering fantastic advantages as well as pitfalls to students and researchers. On the positive side, AI is helping students improve the precision of their writing, especially for those who must write a paper in a language that is not native to them. Overall, the prompts and corrections provided by AI are enabling young researchers to communicate more clearly and effectively.
Prof. Frery recommends transparency in the use of AI tools in writing, particularly when translation to English or another language is required. Paper submitters should make a note acknowledging they used AI in preparing the document, and reviewers will take this into account. This includes tools such as the popular Grammarly writing assistant.
During the research phase, AI saves time in reviewing literature describing the work of others, which may seem like a positive. However, students are relying too much on AI rather than doing their own research to determine what works and what doesn’t. Students simply aren’t reading as many papers for their background research as they should and therefore aren’t learning as much, he said.
“Students are losing their ability to criticize and be creative,” Prof. Frery cautioned. “They are losing out on the fun of going through the creative process.”
Speaking specifically about the use of AI in the preparation of research papers submitted for GRSS publication, Prof. Frery and colleagues have seen it all. There are egregious, yet common, examples of misused AI. The first is when the researcher relies entirely on AI to investigate the topic at hand. In other words, the researcher doesn’t perform any actual studies or experiments. AI simply reviews previously published papers and produces conclusions.
The second example is when AI writes the paper in its entirety. The researchers may have performed their own work, but they rely on AI to write up the results. Again, this is not an acceptable application of AI technology. Fortunately, it’s relatively easy for reviewers to spot these two situations, but that may change as AI improves, posting a danger to scientific progress.
Unfortunately, these uses of AI defeat the primary goal of publishing, he observed, which is to enhance our scientific understanding of the universe.
The Professor adds that GRSS has already developed new templates that warn reviewers about inappropriate use of AI in the review process. GRSS is also working on guidelines that will be published for geoscience and remote sensing researchers to abide by when preparing their submissions.
In the meantime, Prof. Frery recommends researchers return to the basics of the scientific method so as not to rely too heavily on AI. First, he recommends defining a good scientific question. Then, review the literature yourself to learn more. If necessary, repostulate your question before moving forward with the actual research project. Analyze all the results before coming to the conclusions that you will write and submit as a paper for peer review.
Asked for final thoughts on the general status of scientific publishing, Prof. Frery offered a glimpse into why many students and researchers find AI attractive. He believes it’s because there is too much pressure to publish, or to publish too often. He believes that good science is suffering because researchers are overly focused on publishing.
He recommends researchers pause and take the time to look at our planet and the many problems we face – climate change and microplastics in the oceans, for example. Every scientist brings their own background and perspective to address these problems. Solutions may start small, but Prof. Frery exhorts geoscientists to think big about the challenges themselves.
