On the morning of April 26, Niels Peter Thomas, Managing Director of Greater China Region and Global Books, Springer Nature Group , and his party visited our School to share and communicate with our teachers and students on the theme of Scholarly Publishing and Library Knowledge Services in Artificial Intelligence Environment.

People attended the event were as followings:

Chuanfu Chen, Senior Professor of Humanities and Social Sciences at Wuhan University,

Lihong Zhou, Associate Dean of the SIM,Wuhan University,

Jie Xu, Director of the Department of Publishing Science of the SIM,Wuhan University, and editors of the Journal Center.

In his speech, Professor Chuanfu Chen welcomed Niels Peter Thomas and his party, and highly affirmed the contribution of Springer Nature Group in scholarly publishing and services. He reviewed the good cooperation history and profound friendship between Springer Nature Group and the School, hoping to carry out more in-depth cooperation with Springer Nature Group to help subjects construction, enhance international influence and achieve mutual benefit and win-win results. Chuanfu Chen said that he was looking forward to seeing Springer Nature Group play a more active role in scholarly publishing in China and international exchange, so as to build a bridge for communication and understanding between China and the world.

Subsequently, on behalf of the School, Chuanfu Chen presented Niels Peter Thomas with the consultant certificate of Publishing Journal (in Chinese) and souvenir.

In the academic discussion session, Niels Peter Thomas shared the topic of Scholarly Publishing and Library Knowledge Services in Artificial Intelligence Environment. He believed that scientific research institutions and publishing institutions constitute two levels of scholarly publishing, and the operation and interaction of the two levels, represented by publishing, reading, communication and creation, realize the cycle of knowledge. Publishing reform is often closely related to the development of technology. Nowadays, "where will artificial intelligence push scholarly publishing" is a widely concerned topic. The advantages and disadvantages of artificial intelligence are related, but overall, the benefits outweigh the risks. The application of AI in scholarly publishing and library will increase content production, improve publishing efficiency and break down language barriers, however, artificial intelligence urgently needs principles to regulate and guide it.

In the questioning session, the students further discussed the role of human beings in the process of AI participating in scholarly publishing, the identification and review of AI-generated content, and the role of publishers in academic integrity education. Niels Peter Thomas affirmed the value of the questions, and he expressed that human beings play a vital role in AI's participation in scholarly publishing. At present, it was still very difficult to identify and trace the content generated by AI, and it was necessary to establish new laws to regulate it, while academic integrity requires the joint efforts of publishers, libraries and researchers.

Our School has a good cooperative relationship with Springer Nature Group. As early as 2014, Springer Nature Group published the scholarly monograph Library and Information Science: Trends and Research, which co-edited by Professor Chuanfu Chen and Professor Ronald Larsen, former dean of the School of Information Management of the University of Pittsburgh, in the form of open access (OA), and the book has received nearly 300,000 clicks and downloads. In 2015, Professor Lihong Zhou’s monograph Knowledge Sharing in Chinese Hospitals was published by the Springer Nature Group, which won unanimous praise from peers at home and abroad. Since 2016, the Department of Publishing Science of our School has established a cooperative relationship with the China Branch of Springer Nature Group, and started to jointly cultivate talents in digital publishing and academic services. In 2019, the head of the Department of Publishing Science of our School visited Springer Nature Group’s headquarters in Berlin and had an in-depth exchange with its Nature journal publishing team and open science team.

Links to books written by Professor Chuanfu Chen and Professor Lihong Zhou as followings:

https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-642-54812-3

https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-662-45162-5