Artificial intelligence and the Journal of Research in Science Teaching

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a transformative technology that promises to impact many aspects of society including research, education, and publishing. We, the editors of the Journal of Research in Science Teaching (JRST), think that the journal has a responsibility to contribute to the ongoing dialogues about the use of AI in research and publishing with particular attention to the field of science education. We use this editorial to share our current ideas about the opportunities and challenges associated with AI in science education research and to sketch out new journal guidelines related to the use of AI for the production of JRST articles. We also extend an invitation to scholars to submit research articles and commentaries that advance the field's understanding of the intersections of AI and science education. Establishing foundations for an AI revolution has been in progress since the mid-twentieth century (Adamopoulou and research, education, and publishing are certainly some of the areas that might be dramatically impacted. Just as it is exciting to consider the possibilities of AI, there are ample reasons for concern. As the editors of JRST, we think it is important for the journal to present clear guidelines for the use of AI in JRST publications and review processes. In this editorial, we have attempted to outline such a set of guidelines. As AI technologies change, these guidelines will need to be reviewed and when appropriate revised; but for now, we hope that these guidelines provide help for researchers and authors trying to navigate the current environment for science education research in which AI is clearly a part. In addition to presenting guidelines for AI use in JRST, we hope this editorial contributes to a burgeoning conversation in the science education community about AI more generally. As nearly all commentators about AI have suggested, AI is potentially transformative, but there are many uncertainties about how we should use AI and what problems could be generated through that use. AI is already an important part of science learning environments and a tool being used in many different ways by learners and teachers (e.g., Cross, 2023). While there are certainly some science education researchers responding to the AI revolution (e.g., Antonenko & Bramowitz, 2023), we think, that as a whole, the science education research community is not as far along as it needs to be in terms of understanding, theorizing, and studying the intersections of AI and science education. To help advance this discourse, we invite scholars to submit their research related to AI in science education to JRST. Authors of empirical manuscripts, literature reviews, or explorations of theory related to the use of AI in science education are invited to submit manuscripts to the journal. In addition, we are very interested in hosting a series of commentaries that advance positions regarding what AI technologies are being used in science education, how AI should be used (or not used) to support science learning and teaching, the pitfalls and potential of AI in our field, how the field should respond to developments in AI, and so forth. Commentaries are much shorter than full article submissions (1000–2000 words) and are reviewed by the editorial team as opposed to the full review process used for other types of manuscripts. We invite scholars to send inquiries regarding the appropriateness of particular themes or purposes of potential commentaries to the JRST editors via email: email protected. Commentaries related to AI (or other topics) should be submitted through the journal's online submission platform (https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jrst) as a "Comment" (when asked to select article type). We look forward to conversations in the pages of JRST that can help shape the future of science education and science education research and the role of AI in that future.