Un/Sustainable Peer Review and Generative AI: Ethical Gaps, Editorial Acceleration, and the Whitewashing of Technological Solutionism

Angel Gordo; Chris Gray; Ana Rodríguez; Elías Said-Hung; Raúl Tabarés

doi:10.17742/IMAGE29731

Authors

Angel Gordo Universidad Complutense de Madrid https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4493-2910
Chris H. Gray University of California at Santa Cruz
Ana Rodríguez Complutense University of Madrid https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2977-4814
Elías Said-Hung International University of La Rioja https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0594-5906
Raúl Tabarés Open University of Catalunya https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8149-3534

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17742/IMAGE29731

Abstract

Generative AI in peer review raises ethical and environmental concerns and risks deepening existing inequities in scholarly publishing. Celebrated gains in speed often mask declines in quality and accountability. Training and deploying large models impose environmental costs. In editorial workflows, AI can privilege technical fixes over structural reform, and evidence shows it reproduces human biases while being cast as neutral. We call for a renewed commitment to open-science principles anchored in human oversight, deep sustainability, and broader justice. The paper concludes by interrogating sustainability’s absence from green-economy debates and mapping the values likely to shape the future of peer review.

Author Biographies

Angel Gordo, Universidad Complutense de Madrid

Ángel Gordo is the editor of Teknokultura and a member of Complutense Institute of Sociology for the Study of Contemporary Social Transformations (TRANSOC). His current research interests focus on the relationships between social change and technology, agroecology and sustainability.

Chris H. Gray, University of California at Santa Cruz

Chris Hables Gray is a Continuing Lecturer at Crown College, University of California at Santa Cruz. He has written many articles and is author or lead editor of eight books, most recently AI, Sacred Violence and War -- The Case of Gaza (Palgrave--Pivot 2025) and Virus is a Language: AI, QAnon, COVID-19 and the New Abnormal (Goldsmiths University Press/MIT Press 2025).

Ana Rodríguez, Complutense University of Madrid

Ana María Rodríguez Romero is a librarian at the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM) and director of the Library at the Faculty of Documentation Sciences. She has experience in academic publishing, having managed the Complutense Scientific Journals Portal, and collaborates on projects related to information policy, documentation technologies, and scholarly communication.

Elías Said-Hung, International University of La Rioja

Elías Said-Hung is Full Professor at the Faculty of Education and Principal Investigator of the research group Inclusion in socio-educational and intercultural contexts, Society and Media (SIMI) at UNIR. His research interests include digital media, disinformation, hate speech, and the application of technology in education.

Raúl Tabarés , Open University of Catalunya

Raúl Tabarés is senior researcher at Fundación TECNALIA RESEARCH & INNOVATION where he works at the intersection of digitalization, policy and culture. He is also associate professor in the Master of Philosophical Challenges of the Open University of Catalunya. He has a significant experience (more than 15 years and 30 projects) in many international collaborative EU research projects. His work has been published in top-rated journals and he has been a speaker in different seminars, lectures, workshops and events.

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