As digitalisation reshapes how knowledge is produced and shared, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is becoming increasingly embedded in academic writing practices. This project, "Knowledge making in the era of Artificial Intelligence: the social regulation of writing for publication processes and products", explores a critical question with far-reaching societal implications: how does AI impact writing for publication process and product?
Project summary
Writing for publication is not an isolated task but a socially regulated process involving collaboration, feedback, and disciplinary socialisation—especially for Early Career Researchers (ECRs). When these social processes are mediated or replaced by AI tools, there is a risk that academic writing may shift from a reflective, interactive endeavour to a more uniform and less accountable one.
This project seeks to elucidate how AI is reshaping early career researchers’ (ECRs) writing for publication—a key practice in the construction and dissemination of academic knowledge. Drawing on applied linguistics, social regulation of learning, and critical AI literacy, the project investigates: (1) how AI alters the regulatory micro-processes involved in academic writing; and (2) how these changes affect rhetorical and linguistic diversity in academic texts. Through a longitudinal, micro-ethnographic study with nine ECRs from diverse disciplines, we will combine multimodal data (keystroke logging, screen capture, interviews, and writing drafts) with corpus-based genre and AI-assisted analysis of published articles.
This is the first study to examine self-, co-, and socially shared regulation in AI-assisted writing-for-publication contexts. We will clarify when and why writers turn to AI tools, how these interactions shape their authorial agency, and what consequences this has for the production and perception of scientific knowledge. The project will generate urgently needed insights to inform responsible digitalisation in higher education and research. Its outcomes will support evidence-based policies, training, and ethical AI design—ensuring that digital tools enhance rather than erode scholarly integrity, diversity, and the societal value of academic knowledge.
Project team
- Raffaella Negretti, (Professor, Principal Investigator), Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden.
- Baraa Khuder, (Senior Lecturer, project collaborator), Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden.
- Moa Johansson, (Associate Professor, project collaborator),Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden.
- Theresa Lillis, (Professor, scientific adviser), the Open University, England.