Scientific Writing, Reviewing, and Editing for Open-access TESOL Journals: The Role of ChatGPT

OpenAI’s launch of ChatGPT in November 2022 brought a groundbreaking development to academic writing, as this chatbot has demonstrated its ability to draft “high-quality” papers for submission to academic journals. Despite ongoing efforts to discourage or prohibit the publication of artificial intelligence (AI)-generated papers, ChatGPT’s influences on the scientific writing, reviewing, and editing processes for open-access journals cannot be ignored. This innovation presents a challenge to academic publishing: AI-produced papers can be difficult to differentiate from human-authored work, and tools for detection remain limited. This paper outlines obstacles in academic publishing following ChatGPT’s emergence. The academic community should ponder the implications of AI-generated papers and explore ways to manage such material in scientific writing and publishing.