Re reviewers? This is the consequence of relying on free labor. Re AI? Terrifying. I had to swear I didn't use AI anywhere in the process (valid) and then they immediately desk reject with AI? It is a longitudinal follow-up. The methods + variables are largely the same to allow for comparison.

The scientific journal enterprise is burning down. Earlier this week, I had a paper returned after they had TWENTY-SEVEN reviewers decline. Today, I had a paper returned for a follow-up study because they fed it into AI and it was 20% similar to the pilot study we published from the same project.