Yusop Boonsuk
This qualitative study examines how false-positive AI detection disrupts authorship among 12 university-based TESOL scholars in Thailand whom Turnitin, GPTZero, and iThenticate wrongly flagged. Amidst intensifying Scopus-indexed publication pressures and systemic institutional deficits, the research explores how algorithmic misjudgement affects scholars negotiating high-stakes, resource-constrained, non-Anglophone environments. Through semi-structured interviews, reflective journals, and narrative accounts examined through inductive content analysis, three critical findings emerged. First, algorithmic governance functions as epistemic erasure. Opaque detection systems invalidate knowledge claims while precluding authorial contestation. Second, linguistic bias disproportionately flags non-native English writing as artificial, transforming multilingual scholars’ legitimate use of tools into evidence of misconduct. Third, participants experienced crises in scholarly identity, questioning acceptable authorship boundaries when digital assistance norms remain undefined. These findings indicate that the boundary between generative and assistive AI use remains conceptually contested and is poorly addressed by current editorial frameworks. Rather than viewing misclassification as a technical error, this study frames it as an institutional failure that replaces human judgement with automated suspicion. It calls for publishing practices grounded in transparency, author dialogue, and recognition of authorship as a contextual human practice, particularly urgent where linguistic diversity intersects with constrained institutional resources and geopolitical hierarchies in global knowledge production. © 2026 Elsevier Inc. All rights are reserved, including those for text and data mining, AI training, and similar technologies.
Faculty of Education, Prince of Songkla University, 181 Charoenpradit Road, Rusamilae, Pattani, Mueang Pattani, 94000, Thailand; Korea University, 145 Anam-ro, Seongbuk-gu, Seoul, 02841, South Korea; Department of Nonformal Education, Faculty of Education, Universitas Negeri Malang, Jl. Cakrawala No. 5, Sumbersari, Kec. Lowokwaru, Jawa Timur, Kota Malang, 65145, Indonesia
