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Quarterly Newsletter
Fall 2025
This quarter featured rigorous and insightful conversations across research integrity, peer review, AI, and the shared infrastructures that underpin global scholarship. Below is a concise digest of key updates, resources, and community activities shaping our work and the broader scholarly-publishing ecosystem.
Contents
Industry Insights
Peer Review & Research Integrity Insights
Peer Review Week 2025 Spotlight
As part of Peer Review Week celebrations, HighWire’s SVP of Product Management, Tony Alves, was featured in an Asian Council of Science Editors video, offering insights into the intersection of AI, ethics, and research integrity.
Watch the video to explore the evolving perspectives shaping peer review practices worldwide.
Watch the Video
Best Practices Webinar Series
Protecting Publisher Content in the Age of AI
Our most recent session in the Best Practices Webinar Series examined how AI models interact with publisher content and the implications for legal rights, provenance, and ethical stewardship.
Key themes included:
- Strategies for safeguarding proprietary content
- Understanding LLM data sources and reuse
- Responsible AI applications in publishing workflows
The full webinar is available on demand
Watch webinar recording
Peer Review Week Blog Series
This four-part series explores how peer review is evolving in an era shaped by AI and emerging research-integrity challenges:
- AI, Integrity & the Future of Peer Review
- How AI Is Reshaping Peer Review
- Scaling Research Integrity: Paper Mills & Reviewer Fraud
- Balancing AI, Preprints & Human Judgment
Together, these posts highlight new approaches to strengthening transparency, trust, and workflow resilience across the peer review ecosystem
Read the Highwire Blog
Events & Community
STM Annual Conference in Frankfurt
October 13–14 | The Westin Grand Frankfurt
HighWire participated in discussions focused on trusted infrastructures and collaborative publishing workflows.
Takeaways:
- Shared strategies for improving accessibility and workflow efficiency
- Examined the role of publishers in fostering global scientific cooperation
Frankfurt Book Fair
October 15–19 | Messe Frankfurt
HighWire had a vibrant presence at this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair, engaging with an international audience of clients, partners, and prospective customers from across Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas. Throughout the week, visitors to the HighWire stand explored our work in hosting, accessibility, AI, and research integrity, with many conversations focused on practical solutions for workflow modernization and content protection. The stand served as a hub for in-depth discussions—ranging from platform strategy and infrastructure resilience to emerging tools for identity verification and sustainable peer review. A dedicated breakout session featured the Research Integrity Compass (RIC), offering a hands-on look at how the platform improves workflow accountability and supports publishers in navigating increasingly complex integrity challenges.
Takeaways:
- Demonstrated how RIC strengthens transparency, editorial oversight, and decision support
- Explored practical approaches to adopting AI responsibly within publishing workflows
- Reinforced the critical connection between technology, trust, and the longterm credibility of scholarly content
JST–STM Joint Seminar (Online)
November 4 | Virtual Event
HighWire participated in the eighth annual joint seminar hosted by the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) and the International Association of STM Publishers (STM), which focused on the rapidly expanding role of generative AI in scholarly communication workflows. Tony Alves presented “The Use of AI in Publisher Workflows: Benefits and Risks Involved in Using AI Solutions,” offering practical insights into responsible adoption of AI across publishing workflows.
Takeaways:
- Growing use of generative AI to streamline editorial and production processes
- Emerging tools that support integrity checks, content enhancement, and reviewer assistance
- Importance of transparency and responsible AI practices in maintaining trust in scholarly publishing
Watch Tony’s presentation
Charleston Conference 2025
November 3–7 | Charleston, SC
This year’s conference emphasized resilience, collaboration, and innovation in scholarly publishing. HighWire team members participated in discussions and oneon-one conversations with librarians, publishers, and vendors.
Takeaways:
- Explored innovative hosting solutions and workflow improvements
- Emphasized the importance of partnerships across libraries and publishers
- Highlighted community-driven strategies to advance discovery and research integrity
STM Innovation & Integrity Days 2025
December 9–10 | BMA House, London
HighWire will join industry leaders to discuss emerging technologies and collaborative approaches that reinforce research integrity and transparency. As part of the Innovation Fair, HighWire will showcase a new AI-assisted peer review tool designed to support early-career researchers in China— a DigiCorePro (DCP) module that expands reviewer participation and strengthens integrity.
Key capabilities of SinoScholar Review include:
- Expanding reviewer pools, particularly early-career researchers
- Structured review templates, manuscript querying, and language assistance
- Integrity safeguards such as ethics alerts, citation checks, and audit logs
As part of Integrity Day, Tony Alves is organizing a research integrity workshop titled “Helping Your Editors and Reviewers Understand Research Integrity Issues.” This session will provide practical guidance for research-integrity professionals, with a focus on supporting editors and peer reviewers in identifying and responding to integrity concerns during manuscript evaluation.
Learn more about the event
Researcher to Reader Conference 2026
February 24–25 | BMA House, London
Tony Alves is organizing a panel exploring how independent peer review providers are transforming research evaluation through journal-independent, community-driven models. The session will examine how these initiatives:
- Promote transparency, equity, and efficiency
- Reduce re-review fatigue and duplication
- Support early-career researchers
- Integrate with preprint ecosystems and publishing workflows
The panel will offer practical insights into engaging with these platforms to advance more inclusive and effective models of research assessment.
Conference details
Product & Platform Updates
Research Integrity Compass (RIC)
RIC is HighWire’s unified solution for supporting identity verification and research-integrity checks across submission and peer review workflows. As a core module within the DigiCorePro submission and peer review system, RIC enhances editorial oversight and strengthens workflow accountability by providing clear, data-driven integrity insights.
Core Capabilities:
- Identity verification using ORCID, Crossref, Retraction Watch, and other authoritative data sources
- Configurable integrity scoring presented through a clear, actionable dashboard
- Seamless integration within the DigiCorePro workflow for end-to-end accountability
Why It Matters:
As research fraud becomes increasingly sophisticated, RIC equips publishers with the tools needed to maintain trust, defend the scholarly record, and ensure rigorous, transparent evaluation throughout the submission and review process.
