Ethical Implications of AI-Generated Content in Academic Publishing: Challenges and Perspectives in the Tunisian Higher Education Context

Abstract

Background: GenAI systems are now an integral element of academic life, although guidelines for research ethics are mostly based on the experiences of the NorthAmerican and European countries. There is not much information available about the ethical issues related to AI that researchers face in Tunisia as well as whether their institutions have adapted to the developments. Objective: to record the way faculty members, postgraduate students and editors in Tunisia comprehend and handle the ethical issues related to AI-created academic materials and to investigate whether the current institutional policy provides significant assistance. Methods: eighteen participants across three institutions (ISET Kasserine, FLSH Sousse, University of Sfax) took part in semi-structured interviews, supplemented by analysis of institutional documents and observation of five research-methods and writing seminars, coded thematically using Braun and Clarke's (2006) six-phase approach. Results: awareness of AI ethics was uneven, with only about a third of participants describing solid understanding and a fifth reporting minimal awareness; institutional documents were largely silent on AI, with the great majority of integrity codes making no mention of it; and the concern raised most often was the absence of structured training, followed by uncertainty over authorship attribution. Conclusion: Tunisian higher education is operating in something close to a policy vacuum on AI-assisted writing. To remedy this situation, it is essential to formulate codes of ethics that incorporate the notion of so-called AI literacy into the educational process of teaching research methods and academic writing.