Project Rachel: Can an AI Become a Scholarly Author?

TL;DR

This paper explores the feasibility and implications of an AI system, Rachel So, acting as a scholarly author by publishing research papers, receiving citations, and engaging with the academic peer review process.

Contribution

It presents empirical data from an action research study on AI authorship, demonstrating how an AI can participate in scholarly publishing and influence the academic ecosystem.

Findings

Rachel So published over 10 papers within 7 months.

Rachel So was cited and received peer review invitations.

The study discusses impacts on publishers, researchers, and scientific communication.

Abstract

This paper documents Project Rachel, an action research study that created and tracked a complete AI academic identity named Rachel So. Through careful publication of AI-generated research papers, we investigate how the scholarly ecosystem responds to AI authorship. Rachel So published 10+ papers between March and October 2025, was cited, and received a peer review invitation. We discuss the implications of AI authorship on publishers, researchers, and the scientific system at large. This work contributes empirical action research data to the necessary debate about the future of scholarly communication with super human, hyper capable AI systems.