Elsevier's global survey of 3k researchers on use of AI tools

4 hours ago

Less than half (45%) of researchers have sufficient time for research due to pressure from information volume, administrative tasks, and publishing demands.
58% of researchers now use AI tools, up from 37% in 2024, viewing AI as transformative for saving time and improving work quality.
Researchers show regional confidence gaps in AI, with 68% in China believing AI gives more choice versus 29% in the US and 26% in the UK.
Top uses of AI include finding/summarizing research (61%), literature reviews (51%), and drafting grant proposals (41%) or papers (38%).
Concerns about AI ethics and reliability persist, with only 23% globally believing AI tools are ethically developed and 22% seeing them as trustworthy.
Key trust markers for AI include transparency (e.g., automatic citations), recency of training data, safety, quality content, and human expert validation.
Funding pessimism drives relocation considerations, with 29% of researchers thinking of moving countries; top destinations are Canada, Germany, and the US.
Interdisciplinary and cross-border collaboration is increasing, with 63% globally seeing more collaboration than in prior years.

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