Automated Formatting Tools: Benefits, Limitations, & Risks
Manuscript formatting can seem exhausting, but it can make or break the publication of your research! With journals demanding well-formatted manuscripts, most authors tend to either outsource this work to professionals or look for automated formatting tools.
This blog takes a look at some useful AI tools for manuscript formatting, their benefits, and how their limitations can be managed.
Benefits of Using AI Formatting Tools
Limitations and Risks of AI Formatting Tools
AI Tools for Formatting
If you are looking for a single tool that can help you format an entire paper, you are not likely to find any. However, there are different tools for formatting various parts of a research paper.
Tools like Zotero, EndNote, and Mendeley are useful reference managers that help in organizing citations and generating bibliographies. They can format reference lists as per your preferred style guide (e.g., APA, MLA, or Chicago) or journal-specific formatting style.
When it comes to research writing, you need tools that ease the writing process without doing the writing for you. This is where tools like Paperpal and Grammarly can be useful as they assist in writing rather than replace your work. In particular, Paperpal1 can give you a single guided flow from idea generation to drafting, polishing, and reviewing the different sections of the manuscript.
Other tools include Mind the Graph2, BioRender, and Adobe Illustrator that are excellent for preparing figures and graphical abstracts. The common aspect in all these tools is that they only help in preparing your desired manuscript in the format you require and not format the paper for you. So when you use AI formatting tools keep in mind that human oversight is crucial to ensure accuracy.
Benefits of Using AI Formatting Tools
While they cannot fully (and accurately) format manuscripts, AI-powered tools are great assistants in finalizing research papers. Here are some benefits to consider.
Consistency checks
AI tools help identify inconsistencies in the manuscript which would probably be overlooked by humans. For instance, Paperpal helps in comprehensive pre-submission checks that include consistency in presentation, disclosures, figures, and references. The main benefit is that you can avoid desk rejections of papers.
Citation and reference formatting
Preparing a list of references and ensuring that they are all consistently formatted is a task that can be easily automated. However, there is a risk of tools generating false information, which we will address in the next section.
Compliance checks
Another aspect where tools come in handy is when you want to check your paper for journal compliance. Most journals provide guidelines and templates that need to be adhered to during submission. AI tools check for compliance with journal-specific instructions if you provide it with the details of your target journal.
Streamlined workflow
Overall, integrating AI tools into your research workflow can help streamline tasks, saving you considerable time. For instance, having your paper checked in real-time by Paperpal can help you shorten paragraphs to meet journal word limits, paraphrase text for variety and fluency, and maintain an academic tone throughout your writing.
Limitations and Risks of AI Formatting Tools
Despite their benefits, there are limitations and risks when using AI tools for formatting.
For instance, ChatGPT is known to generate incorrect information because of inaccurate or outdated training datasets. What’s worse is it is prone to create falsified details based on plausibility simply because it is trained to give you an answer! This is termed as AI hallucination, and more tools are exhibiting this behavior.
Recently, there was a case3 where Claude generated citations with references to works that did not exist. It modified the title of a research paper and produced incorrect author names, generating a non-existent citation. Such cases highlight the importance of retaining human expertise when it comes to scientific publication.
So, here are 3 simple things to keep in mind when using AI formatting tools.
- AI can make mistakes, and it is your responsibility to check the accuracy and authenticity of information you present in the research paper.
- Manuscript formatting should be a combined effort of human and AI. If you find the task tedious or do not have the time, use professional services or external resources to format your manuscripts for you. Do not rely only on AI tools.
- Finally, do not ditch AI tools completely worrying about their limitations! Their benefits outweigh the risks when used carefully with sufficient human oversight.
Key Takeaway
Journals often provide templates for formatting or recommend a standard format for submission and then publish the paper in their preferred format after acceptance. So use AI tools as powerful assistants for formatting your papers but keep the human element intact.
References
1. Paperpal https://paperpal.digitaltoolslab.com/__editage_www__/paperpal
2. Mind the Graph https://paperpal.digitaltoolslab.com/__editage_www__/mind-the-graph
3. Formatting with AI may be riskier than you realize https://www.cliffedekkerhofmeyr.com/news/publications/2025/Practice/Knowledge-Management/knowledge-management-alert-20-june-formatting-with-ai-may-be-riskier-than-you-realise
Give more time for your research, spend less time formatting! Check out Editage’s Manuscript Formatting Services and get professional support for journal formatting.
