This year, the judges have selected four finalists for the ALPSP Award for Innovation in Publishing.

The finalists will be showcased in a lightning presentation session at the ALPSP Conference on 10 September, with the winners announced at the ALPSP Conference Awards Dinner.

In this series, we learn more about each of the finalists and their entries.

 

Tell us about your organisation

Hum delivers AI-powered intelligence tools for publishers, transforming data into actionable insights and opportunities. If you publish content, Hum's Alchemist turns it into intelligence – no data-science team required.

What did we submit for the awards? 

Alchemist Review is our answer to one of academic publishing's toughest bottlenecks: the manual, time-intensive nature of manuscript evaluation.

It instantly extracts and assesses manuscript quality through deep textual analysis, contextual citation validation, and interactive support – all within a secure environment designed specifically for sensitive academic content.

By handling the grunt work, Alchemist Review lets editors spend their energy where it matters most – discerning scientific merit and guiding research forward.

 

 

How does it work & who’s behind it? 

Alchemist Review operates through three core capabilities:

• The manuscript digest uses Hum’s proprietary "distilled knowledge" AI technology to comprehensively analyze submissions. It categorizes paper types, generates both expert and general audience summaries, evaluates methodological soundness, identifies key concepts, analyzes author contributions, and flags potential issues – transforming hours of initial review into minutes of focused insight.

• Comprehensive citation validation, powered by Grounded AI, that goes beyond simple reference checking. It verifies citation accuracy, evaluates contextual relevance, examines author track records, and provides recency analysis. No more wondering whether that crucial supporting study actually says what the authors claim it does.

• An interactive AI chat that offers real-time, context-aware assistance directly within the manuscript review environment. Editors can ask specific questions about methodology, request clarification on complex concepts, or seek additional context while reviewing.

We’ve partnered with a growing crew of publishing industry leaders who believe editors should spend more time championing great research and less time wading through paperwork. 

Our development process has been collaborative. We conducted extensive interviews with journal editors and program managers across multiple disciplines, working closely with foundational partners like AIP Publishing and Oxford University Press. Their feedback shaped every feature, ensuring we built something editors actually wanted rather than what we thought they needed.

Where’s the innovation?

Alchemist Review delivers a holistic, AI‑driven appraisal – content, methods, citations & originality – in minutes, arming editors with expert‑level insight and slashing decision times by between 20-40%

That blend of breadth, speed and conversational explanation is what turns a helpful gadget into a workflow‑changer.

 

 

We're not trying to replace editorial judgment; we're amplifying it. AI handles the analytical heavy lifting, but editors retain complete control over decisions and can engage with authors in ways that foster better research. Less experienced editors gain access to expert-level insights, while seasoned professionals can focus their expertise on strategic decisions rather than routine analysis. 

By providing consistent, high-quality analysis regardless of editor experience level, Alchemist Review helps smaller publishers compete more effectively with larger organizations that have extensive editorial resources.

What’s next? 

The roadmap ahead is as exciting as it is ambitious. We're currently working with early adopters including AIP Publishing, IOP Publishing, the American Physical Society, and Oxford University Press to refine our approach and expand our capabilities.

Immediate developments include discipline expansion beyond our current focus areas, multi-modal assessment capabilities for figures and visualizations, and related article identification to streamline comparative analysis.

We’re hard at work developing our Journal-Fit Dashboard, which will categorize manuscripts across four critical criteria: scope fit, novelty, scientific rigor, and significance and impact. We're also developing integration capabilities with major submission systems like ScholarOne.
Long-term, we aim to extend support to peer reviewers directly, creating recommendation systems for reviewer matching and establishing new standards for transparency and objectivity in manuscript evaluation.

By accelerating research dissemination, improving published research quality, and reducing editor burnout, Alchemist Review can help create a more efficient scholarly communication ecosystem where editors can focus on advancing knowledge rather than drowning in administrative tasks.

See you in Manchester!

 

About the author

Laura Simis is the Director of Marketing at Hum. Drawing on 10+ years of leadership in digital strategy in data and AI spaces, she oversees Hum's brand and marketing efforts, where she greatly enjoys the challenge of making breakthrough technology feel brilliantly human.