Cover not available

Article published In: Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) and Writing for Scholarly Publication
Edited by A. Mehdi Riazi
[Journal of English for Research Publication Purposes 6:2] 2025
► pp. 290–315

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
EPUB logo with download linkDownload EPUB
authorization required

Learning to use GenAI for scholarly publication

Possibilities and pitfalls from an Indonesian perspective

 | Michigan State University | Universitas Swadaya Gunung Jati
 | Michigan State University
 | Michigan State University
 | Michigan State University
Published online: 12 March 2026
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/jerpp.00036.hen
Abstract
Unequal access to resources for publication for Global South scholars is decidedly real when we consider issues of epistemic injustice encountered by them (Higgins, C. (2024). Toward un-WEIRDing academic publishing about language. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 2024(289–290), 27–31. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar). The emergence of Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) may seem like a panacea for addressing this social injustice. However, ongoing material challenges (e.g., limited access to digital media and AI tools) prevent Global South scholars from fully exploiting AI-generated writing (Dobinson, T. J., Chen, J., & Steele, C. (2024). Decolonizing or recolonizing? AI through the eyes of applied linguists, language teachers, and language learners. Australian Review of Applied Linguistics, 47(3), 253–258. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar; Warschauer, M., Tseng, W., Yim, S., Webster, T., Jacob, S., Du, Q., & Tate, T. (2023). The affordances and contradictions of AI-generated text for writers of English as a second or foreign language. Journal of Second Language Writing, 621, 101071. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar). Against this fraught backdrop, we situate our Indonesia-based case study within a decolonial perspective, centering two Indonesian scholars who have attended GenAI workshops on writing for publication. Through thematic analysis, triangulating data from interviews, artifacts, member checking, and peer debriefing, we explore how they negotiated the learning and application of GenAI tools. Our findings reveal that while workshops were generally helpful, the participants faced challenges such as structural inequities in research resources and accessibility, English and discursive challenges, and written voices and academic integrity. From an English for research publication purposes (ERPP) perspective, these findings suggest that GenAI alone will not be able to level the proverbial publication playing field; instead, Global South scholars require mentorship and guidance in navigating the complex publishing process.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Literature review
    • 2.1Challenges faced by Global South scholars in academic publishing
    • 2.2GenAI and the promise of democratized writing
  • 3.Method
    • 3.1Situating our study
      • 3.1.1Participants
    • 3.2Data sources and data collection
    • 3.3Data analysis
    • 3.4Positionality statement
  • 4.Findings and discussion
    • 4.1Challenges the Indonesian scholars experienced using GenAI tools for academic publishing
      • 4.1.1Structural Inequities in research resources and accessibility
      • 4.1.2English and discursive challenges
      • 4.1.3Written voices and academic integrity
    • 4.2The impact of workshop on how to use GenAI tools in scholarly publication
      • 4.2.1An overview of GenAI workshop materials and activities for publication
      • 4.2.2The impact of GenAI workshop for text production process
      • 4.2.3The impact of GenAI workshop in navigating unequal publishing landscapes: Rhetorical mismatch and epistemological racism
  • 5.Conclusion
  • References
References (30)
References
Barnawi, O. Z., & R’boul, H. (2023). Colonizability and hermeneutical injustice in applied linguistics research:(Im) possibilities for epistemological delinking. Applied Linguistics, 44(5), 865–881. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 31, 77–101. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
De Costa, P. I., Li, W., & Rawal, H. (2019). Qualitative classroom methods. In J. W. Schweiter & A. Benati (Eds.), The Cambridge handbook of language learning (pp. 111–136). Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
De Fina, A., Oostendorp, M., & Ortega, L. (2023). Sketches toward a decolonial applied linguistics. Applied Linguistics, 44(5), 819–832. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dobinson, T. J., Chen, J., & Steele, C. (2024). Decolonizing or recolonizing? AI through the eyes of applied linguists, language teachers, and language learners. Australian Review of Applied Linguistics, 47(3), 253–258. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Duff, P. (2008). Case study research in applied linguistics. Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gentil, G. (2022). On becoming a bilingual gatekeeper: The journey of a Francophone editor for an English-language journal. In P. Habibie & A. K. Hultgren (Eds.), The inner world of gatekeeping in scholarly publication (pp. 63–81). Palgrave. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Habibie, P. (2022). Writing for scholarly publication in an interconnected disjunctured world. Journal of Second Language Writing, 581, 100933. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Habibie, P., & Starfield, S. (2023). AI-mediated English for research publication purposes: Are we there yet?. Journal of English for Research Publication Purposes, 4(1), 1–4. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hamid, M. O., Sultana, S., & Roshid, M. M. (2024). Transformation of applied linguistics in the Global South context of Bangladesh: Researcher agency, imagination, and North-South cooperation. Applied Linguistics, amae037. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Higgins, C. (2024). Toward un-WEIRDing academic publishing about language. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 2024(289–290), 27–31. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hyland, K. (2016). Academic publishing and the myth of linguistic injustice. Journal of Second Language Writing, 311, 58–69. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kementerian Pendidikan Tinggi, Sains, dan Teknologi Republik Indonesia (2024). Panduan penggunaan generative artificial intellegence pada pembelajaran di perguruan tinggi [Guidelines for using generative artificial intelligence in teaching and learning in higher education]. Retrieved from [URL]
Kim, N., Cheung, M. M., Lee, V., & De Costa, P. (2025). Centering critical digital literacy in the lives of language teaching professionals: A collaborative autoethnographic exploration. System, 103930. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kubota, R. (2020). Confronting epistemological racism, decolonizing scholarly knowledge: Race and gender in applied linguistics. Applied Linguistics, 41(5), 712–732. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kuteeva, M., & Andersson, M. (2024). Diversity and standards in writing for publication in the age of AI — Between a rock and a hard place. Applied Linguistics, 45(3), 561–567. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Li, W., & De Costa, P. I. (2021). Problematizing enterprise culture in global academic publishing: Linguistic entrepreneurship through the lens of two Chinese visiting scholars in a U.S. university. Multilingua, 40(2), 225–250. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Li, Y., & Flowerdew, J. (2020). Teaching English for Research Publication Purposes (ERPP): A review of language teachers’ pedagogical initiatives. English for Specific Purposes, 591, 29–41. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McGrail, M. R., Rickard, C. M., & Jones, R. (2006). Publish or perish: A systematic review of interventions to increase academic publication rates. Higher Education Research & Development, 25(1), 19–35. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mendoza, A., Oropeza, V., Rodríguez, D., Sobrevilla, Z., & Martínez, J. (2021). Challenges, feelings, and attitudes towards writing in ERPP in semi-periphery countries: The case of Mexican graduate students. Journal of English for Research Publication Purposes, 2(2), 129–159. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pack, A., & Maloney, J. (2023). Using generative artificial intelligence for language education research: Insights from using OpenAI’s ChatGPT. TESOL Quarterly, 57(4), 1571–1582. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Patel, V., & Kim, Y. R. (2007). Contribution of low-and middle-income countries to research published in leading general psychiatry journals, 2002–2004. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 190(1), 77–78. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rojo, L. (2021). Hegemonies and inequalities in academia. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 2021(267–268), 169–192. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Saldana, J. (2021). The coding manual for qualitative researchers (4th ed.). SAGE.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Warschauer, M., Tseng, W., Yim, S., Webster, T., Jacob, S., Du, Q., & Tate, T. (2023). The affordances and contradictions of AI-generated text for writers of English as a second or foreign language. Journal of Second Language Writing, 621, 101071. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zheng, Y., & Guo, X. (2019). Publishing in and about English: Challenges and opportunities of Chinese multilingual scholars’ language practices in academic publishing. Language Policy, 18(1), 107–130. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue