Editorial Demand for AI Research: Evidence from Taylor & Francis Special Issue Calls for Papers

Several major academic publishers, like Taylor & Francis, have reverted to the publication of special issues as a way to diversify their publication portfolios while maximizing the use of guest editors to attract more authors to their journals. This strategy is often achieved through calls for papers (CFPs). In parallel, academic publishing is witnessing an increase in artificial intelligence (AI)-related and AI-assisted literature. In this study, our objective was to assess CFPs across the Taylor & Francis journal portfolio to understand the volume of CFPs related to special issues on AI. From 982 CFPs related to special issues, 242 (24.6%) included one or more AI-related terms in the title or body text and were identified as AI-related, with the highest prevalence in the fields of Computer Science (80.0%) and Information Science (62.5%). A text-mining analysis of 90 CFPs explicitly focused on AI revealed field-specific thematic orientations. For example, in the field of Engineering and Applied Sciences, the Taylor & Francis special issues focused on automation, intelligent systems, and logistics. There is little research dedicated exclusively to CFPs, which offer a unique insight into the publishing business model that focuses on special issues.