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This paper introduces SciUtopia, a closed-loop LLM-agent simulation framework designed to model the co-evolution of academic research ecosystems, including researchers, institutions, and funding. By simulating over 40,000 researchers and millions of interactions across 61 worlds, the framework enables controlled counterfactual experiments on scientific processes. Key findings reveal that rejection-driven resubmission significantly increases reviewer burden, cautious exploration balances citation impact with career success and topic diversity, and resource inequality can arise independent of cumulative advantage.
Rejection-driven resubmission, not just population growth, is a primary driver of overwhelming reviewer burden in academic research.
Scientific progress emerges from a longitudinal ecosystem in which researchers, institutions, funding agencies, collaboration networks, and the scientific literature co-evolve. As AI becomes increasingly involved throughout the scientific research cycle, understanding these interconnected and evolving processes becomes increasingly important. We introduce SciUtopia, a persistent, closed-loop LLM-agent simulation framework for studying academic research ecosystems. SciUtopia models interconnected scientific processes such as research-direction choice, collaboration, submission, peer review, resubmission, citation, funding, and researcher attrition, while maintaining evolving states across simulated years. Its configurable institutional mechanisms and information channels provide a controlled testbed for matched counterfactual experiments and targeted interventions. Across 61 simulation worlds, SciUtopia simulates over 40,000 researchers from 8,000 institutions, producing around 400,000 publication decisions and 1.2 million LLM-generated peer reviews. Using these longitudinal simulations, we find that rejection-driven resubmission substantially amplifies reviewer burden beyond population growth alone, cautious exploration balances citation impact with career success and long-term topic diversity, and resource inequality can emerge even without detectable cumulative advantage from narrowly winning early funding. Code is available at https://github.com/Ahren09/ScienceUtopia.
