A framework for responsible publishing: from best taxonomic practices to AI use and research integrity

Over the last few decades, rapid technological advancements have enabled faster and automated generation of massive biodiversity datasets. Simultaneously, the shift toward open access publishing and development of global data repositories has enormously increased the accessibility of published data, speeding up both research progress and dissemination of the results. In addition, digital communication tools and global and regional funding schemes have fostered greater international collaboration, as demonstrated by the rise in multi-author publications and, to a lesser extent, publications with authorships from multiple countries (Adams et al. 2019). This new paradigm has many benefits for the scientific community, but it has also brought some new challenges and exacerbated some old ones. With larger and more complex datasets, errors can be more easily overlooked and amplified, making it more difficult to uphold high data quality standards (e.g., Hughes et al. 2024). Moreover, artificial intelligence (AI) and open access tools have enabled new ways for plagiarism, data fabrication, and other forms of research misconduct (Elali and Rachid 2023). Finally, growing “publish-orperish” pressures are contributing to questionable research practices and compromises in scientific quality. The policies of the Journal of Hymenoptera Research (JHR) have been constantly evolving to reflect these changes and provide a high publishing standard. In this editorial, we highlight recent upgrades in our policy system and clarify requirements and expectations for publishing in JHR, especially in terms of research, data quality, and ethical standards. These standards are widely applicable, beyond JHR, and we especially hope they will serve as a reminder to senior researchers, and provide guidance and motivation to junior researchers, to conduct high-quality and ethical research.