AI-Driven Paper Surge Pushes Academic Peer Review to Breaking Point

The academic peer review system is facing a growing crisis as the volume of research submissions continues to rise sharply. The surge is partly driven by AI-assisted paper writing, which has made it faster and easier to produce manuscripts at scale. The system relies heavily on volunteer researchers who donate their time to evaluate submitted work, and these reviewers are increasingly struggling to keep pace with demand. The imbalance between submission volumes and available reviewers raises serious concerns about the quality and reliability of published science.