The emerging submission crisis in behavioral science

Abstract

The scientific system currently faces several challenges, such as paper mills, citation manipulation, and discussions about reforming the peer review process. In this opinion paper, I argue that an additional, largely overlooked problem is emerging: a sharp increase in annual manuscript submissions that exceeds editors’ and reviewers’ capacity to evaluate scientific work with sufficient care. Based on personal observations and conversations conducted in 2025, I describe a substantial rise in submissions to individual journals, despite the rapid emergence of new journals. I outline several factors that have accelerated the pace of behavioral science research, including advances in the automation of behavioral science, the growing availability of large real-world datasets, and the widespread adoption of large language models for writing manuscripts. I argue that the current submission crisis is driven primarily by the latter, resulting in a growing number of polished-looking submissions that provide little empirical evidence and place increasing strain on editors and reviewers. I discuss the implications of rising submission volumes for editors, reviewers, and early-career researchers and distinguish between a present submission crisis characterized by superficial contributions and a potential future crisis driven by actually accelerated scientific progress due to the automation of behavioral science. I hope that this opinion paper will spark discussions and research on this topic, eventually providing new solutions, such as the adoption of artificial intelligence tools to support workflows for editors and reviewers.