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Original Research
Ethical Source Use in the Age of AI: Challenges Faced by Advanced English Learners in Academic Writing
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The rapid adoption of generative artificial intelligence (AI) has transformed academic writing while creating new challenges for ethical source use, academic integrity, and responsible engagement with scholarly sources. This qualitative descriptive study explored the challenges advanced English learners face in using sources ethically and avoiding plagiarism in AI-mediated academic writing. Data were collected from 75 multilingual learners enrolled in an advanced academic writing course across three consecutive semesters. Multiple sources of evidence, including essays, writing drafts, reflection papers, instructor feedback, and classroom observations, were analyzed using Braun and Clarke’s (2023) Reflexive Thematic Analysis. The findings revealed five interconnected challenges related to citation practices, authorship identification, source verification, AI-generated references, and ethical decision-making. Together, these findings suggest that ethical source use extends beyond citation accuracy and requires the integration of academic, information, digital, and AI literacies. The study further proposes epistemic responsibility as a conceptual lens for understanding ethical source use in AI-mediated writing and offers pedagogical implications for fostering responsible AI-assisted writing, critical source evaluation, and informed scholarly decision-making among multilingual learners.
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Keywords
Ethical Source Use; Academic Integrity; AI Literacy; Academic Writing; Multilingual Learners
Author(s) Information
Publisher’s Note
The claims, arguments, and counter-arguments made in this article are exclusively those of the contributing authors. Hence, they do not necessarily represent the viewpoints of the authors’ affiliated institutions, or EUROKD as the publisher, the editors and the reviewers of the article.
Acknowledgements
The author sincerely thanks the editor and anonymous reviewers for their valuable time, insightful comments, and constructive feedback, which greatly improved the quality of this manuscript.
Funding
This research received no external funding.
CRediT Authorship Contribution Statement
Laila Noor: Conceptualization, Methodology, Investigation, Data Curation, Formal Analysis, Writing – Original Draft, Writing – Review & Editing, Visualization
Generative AI Use Disclosure Statement
ChatGPT (OpenAI) was used only for language editing (e.g., improving grammar, clarity, organization, and readability) and for creating figures. It was not used to develop the study's ideas, theoretical framework, methodology, literature synthesis, data analysis, interpretation, or conclusions. The author takes full responsibility for all scholarly content.
Ethics Declarations
World Medical Association (WMA) Declaration of Helsinki–Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Participants
This study involved classroom-based educational research with advanced English learners and writing instructors in a U.S. higher education context. Participation and the use of classroom-generated data were conducted with appropriate attention to participant privacy, confidentiality, and ethical research practices. All data used for research purposes were anonymized to protect participants’ identities. The study did not involve medical research, clinical intervention, or experimentation and therefore did not involve the types of medical procedures addressed by the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki.
Competing Interests
The author declares no competing interests.
Data Availability
The data supporting the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.