# Academic journals' AI policies fail to curb the surge in AI-assisted academic writing

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.06705 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.06705/

## Key facts

- Cited by 12 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 12 of its 58 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 7 Dec 2025.

## Builds on (most cited first, 12 of 12)

- [Survey of Hallucination in Natural Language Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2202.03629/) (2022)
- [Can large language models provide useful feedback on research papers? A large-scale empirical analysis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.01783/) (2023)
- [OpenAlex: A fully-open index of scholarly works, authors, venues, institutions, and concepts](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.01833/) (2022)
- [Delving into LLM-assisted writing in biomedical publications through excess vocabulary](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.07016/) (2024)
- [ChatGPT "contamination": estimating the prevalence of LLMs in the scholarly literature](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.16887/) (2024)
- [Can ChatGPT evaluate research quality?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.05519/) (2024)
- [Delving into the Utilisation of ChatGPT in Scientific Publications in Astronomy](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.17324/) (2024)
- [Rise of Generative Artificial Intelligence in Science](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.20960/) (2024)
- [AI-Assisted Writing Is Growing Fastest Among Less Established Scientists in Non-English-Speaking Countries](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.15872/) (2025)
- [Field-normalized citation impact indicators and the choice of an appropriate counting method](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1501.04431/) (2015)
- [Undermining Mental Proof: How AI Can Make Cooperation Harder by Making Thinking Easier](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.14452/) (2024)
- [Artificial Intelligence Tools Expand Scientists' Impact but Contract Science's Focus (Just accepted by Nature, to be online soon)](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.07727/) (2024)

## Built on by (most cited first, 12 of 12)

- [LLM hallucinations in the wild: Large-scale evidence from non-existent citations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.07723/) (2026)
- [AI-Associated Lexical Shifts Across 34 Languages: Cross-Lingual Convergence and Diachronic Uptake in News Writing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.25358/) (2026)
- [Beyond Via: Analysis and Estimation of the Impact of Large Language Models in Academic Papers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.25638/) (2026)
- [How AI Writing Assistance Distorts Perceptions of AI Users and Their Opinions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.22503/) (2026)
- [The Emerging AI Paper-Review Arms Race: Adversarial Co-Evolution in Scholarly Publishing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.07713/) (2026)
- [Rethinking Publication: A Certification Framework for AI-Enabled Research](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.22026/) (2026)
- [Toward an Engineering of Science: Rebalancing Generation and Verification in the Age of AI](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.10425/) (2026)
- [AI evaluation may bias perceptions: The importance of context in interpreting academic writing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.26662/) (2026)
- [Smaller, Younger, and More Impactful: How AI-Assisted Writing Transforms Research Teams](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.27404/) (2026)
- [Toward Trustworthy Autonomous Science: A Two-Year Community Roadmap](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.12113/) (2026)
- [Scientific exploration, collaboration and labor division in the large language model era](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.20923/) (2026)
- [Six misconceptions about large language models: A minimal model and diagnostic taxonomy](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.20421/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

The rapid integration of generative AI into academic writing has prompted widespread policy responses from journals and publishers. However, the effectiveness of these policies remains unclear. Here, we analyze 5,114 journals and over 5.2 million papers to evaluate the real-world impact of AI usage guidelines. We show that despite 70% of journals adopting AI policies (primarily requiring disclosure), researchers' use of AI writing tools has increased dramatically across disciplines, with no significant difference between journals with or without policies. Non-English-speaking countries, physical sciences, and high-OA journals exhibit the highest growth rates. Crucially, full-text analysis on 164k scientific publications reveals a striking transparency gap: Of the 75k papers published since 2023, only 76 (~0.1%) explicitly disclosed AI use. Our findings suggest that current policies have largely failed to promote transparency or restrain AI adoption. We urge a re-evaluation of ethical frameworks to foster responsible AI integration in science.