Academic Writing with AI

Dear Scholar,

No topic is as hotly debated as whether and to what extent AI should be permitted in academic writing. Plagiarism is a significant issue, but so is the increasing number of papers being produced (and the implicit assumption that using AI produces papers faster and thus lowers their quality), which is overwhelming the peer-review system. And lastly, a more subtle notion of not fully understanding the science when outsourcing some of the writing, which is essential for human understanding, to AI.

Over the last few years, I have been experimenting with AI, avoiding these pitfalls and creating ethical guidelines for my own use. In today's newsletter, I want to give you an overview of resources that summarise what I've learned:

Academic Writing:

• ​How to write an introduction with AI​
• ​How to write a discussion with AI​
• ​11 lessons from using AI for academic writing​
• ​Training ChatGPT to write in your voice​
• ​Full workflow on AI and literature reviews (only part of it involves writing)​

Ethical AI

• ​How to use AI for peer reviewing your manuscripts​
• ​Is writing with AI plagiarism and can it be detected?​
• ​My personal guidelines for ethical AI use​

Tool Reviews for Academic Writing with AI:

• ​WriteWise​
• ​Paperpal​
• ​ChatGPT 5 (Writing is only one of the use cases)
• ​Yomu AI​
• ​Google Docs for Academics​

Check out the Effortless Lit Review, the Writing with AI, and the Publishing courses for step-by-step guidance on using and combining the numerous techniques above.

Keep in mind that there is currently no consensus on what is a permissible use of AI, and you need to check your university guidelines before using any of the techniques presented here. However, don't be deterred from experimenting. From personal experience, I know that AI can increase your productivity and does not compromise research quality once you have discovered how best to integrate it into your research process.

Free Webinar: Lit Reviews with Paperpal

In the upcoming webinar, I will discuss a few new features Paperpal has released and show you how to use them. You are going to learn to:

• Use an AI-assisted workflow to read and understand academic papers with smart digital note-taking
• Synthesise insights from multiple papers
• Turn research notes into writing with AI support, while keeping full control of the narrative
• Avoid overreliance on AI by protecting critical thinking, originality, and academic integrity

The webinar is free, and a recording will be available shortly after. Date: Feb. 12th. Click the button for more details.

Wishing you a wonderful weekend,

​
Ilya Shabanov, The Effortless Academic​

This is the weekly Effortless Academic Newsletter. It consists of an in-depth tutorial and additional events, promotions, or relevant information for the AI-curious modern academic. I strive to consistently provide value with every email. If this is not relevant to you, you can always unsubscribe from everything and will never hear from me again. If you find the email somehow inappropriate, please reply to me and let me know what you didn't like.