The paper identifies two specific groups of researchers most likely to use AI for their writing. These were research teams from non-native English-speaking institutions and new entrants to the field with little experience of submitting to journals. However, using AI was associated with higher rejection rates.

Even some top business schools were not immune to getting some AI help. In fact, academics from institutions under strong pressure to publish showed a greater increase in AI-assisted submissions.

But it wasn't just the authors turning to AI. More than 30% of expert reviews submitted to the journal also used language models, a sharp increase from before ChatGPT.

The task force noted that these types of reviews are often narrower and less insightful than those written by humans. This is putting editors under more pressure as they have to spend time filtering out low-quality work. "AI is placing the peer-review system under stress that shows no signs of decreasing."
To improve the system, the journal suggests an overhaul of how research is valued. The focus should not be on the number of papers published but on the quality of the ideas.

Claudine Gartenberg et al, More Versus Better: Artificial Intelligence, Incentives, and the Emerging Crisis in Peer Review, Organization Science (2026). DOI: 10.1287/orsc.2026.ed.v37.n3

Part 2

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How oak trees outwit their predators
Oak trees delay leaf emergence by about three days following heavy caterpillar infestation, reducing caterpillar survival and leaf damage by 55%. This adaptive timing, detected via satellite data, demonstrates that trees respond not only to weather but also to biological threats, challenging models that consider only abiotic factors. The delay is a reversible defense, maintaining resilience amid climate change and insect pressure.

Satellite data show trees delay budburst across landscapes to escape herbivores., Nature Ecology & Evolution (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41559-026-03071-9

Bigger, faster, but still outfoxed: How prey escape predators

Predators are typically larger, faster, and more powerful than the animals they hunt. Yet in nature, most attacks fail. A new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, by researchers asks: why do prey get away so often? The key, the researchers found, lies in something the original model overlooked: reaction times.
For decades, scientists have explained this using a simple idea: maneuverability. Because prey are smaller, they can often turn more sharply. A classic model, known as the turning gambit, proposes that a well-timed evasive turn allows prey to slip out of a predator's path, even if the predator is faster. The model even specifies exactly how much more maneuverable prey need to be for this to work. But in the half-century since this model was proposed, no one had tested whether its predictions hold across land, air, and water.
The new study compiled data on animal traits such as body mass, speed, and turning ability, to test the model's predictions. The results revealed a mismatch between theory and reality. Across all environments, prey are generally not maneuverable enough to compensate for their speed disadvantage. Paradoxically, aquatic environments, where the model predicted predators should hold a huge advantage, turned out to have the lowest capture success in nature. Predators caught prey in only around 1 in 10 attacks.

So if not maneuverability, what explains how prey get away so often? The key, the researchers found, lies in something the original model overlooked: reaction times. No predator can respond instantaneously to a prey's evasive turn. Seeing, processing, and reacting all take time. While these delays are short—just a small fraction of a second—they can make a huge difference.
It's this little head start, or benefit of starting to turn earlier, that gives prey enough space to evade. This exceptional maneuverability has a simple physical explanation: water is roughly 1,000 times denser than air, giving aquatic animals something far more substantial to push against to generate a sharp turn.
Prey escape predators not primarily through superior maneuverability, as previously thought, but due to reaction time delays in predators. These brief delays allow prey to initiate evasive maneuvers before predators can respond, significantly increasing escape success, especially in aquatic environments. Predator–prey dynamics are thus influenced by both biomechanical and neural factors.

Lars Koopmans et al, The allometry of vertebrate pursuit predation, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2026). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2534397123