Articles Open Access Vol. 1 No. 3 (2026): September 2026

Borrowed Authorship: AI-Mediated Academic Writing, Authorial Disconnect, and the Problem of Intellectual Ownership

  • Ghulam Mohammad Khan 1 ,
  • Manzoor Ahmad Parey 2 ,
  • Mubashir Hamid Mir 3 ,
  • Irfan Ahmad Wagay 4
1 HKM Govt. Degree College Bandipora, Higher Education Department, J&K, India
2 HKM Govt. Degree College Bandipora, Higher Education Department, J&K, India
3 HKM Govt. Degree College Bandipora, Higher Education Department, J&K, India
4 HKM Govt. Degree College Bandipora, Higher Education Department, J&K, India
Received: Revised: Accepted: Published:
doi https://doi.org/10.63960/sp.2026.jtple.1.3.32
Published: 2026-09-30

Abstract

The rapid integration of generative artificial intelligence (AI) into academic writing has directed scholarly attention to a single question: was a given text produced with the help of a machine? This paper argues that a more consequential question concerns the author rather than the artefact: does the person whose name appears on a published paper understand, and remember, what the paper says? The study began as a hypothesis formed during a routine discussion among three faculty members at a degree college in North Kashmir. To test it, we identified twenty already-published research papers across the sciences, social sciences, and humanities: ten flagged by established AI-detection tools as having more than 80 per cent AI usage (an imperfect proxy for actual AI use), and ten showing no AI assistance. We then conducted voluntary, semi-structured interviews with first authors, preferably by telephone so that authors could not immediately revisit their papers, and compared their command of each paper’s concepts, terminology, borrowed ideas, methodology, and contribution to the field. Nine of ten authors of AI-mediated papers showed a marked disconnect from their own content, despite the fluency, coherence, and argumentative strength of the texts. Eight of ten authors who wrote without AI answered readily and confidently and clearly recalled the experience of writing and publishing. The AI-mediated papers also tended to appear in less popular journals, and five of ten contained mismatches in the references cited. These are exploratory associations from a small purposive sample and do not establish that AI use caused the differences. Interpreting these patterns through theories of authorship, levels of processing, cognitive offloading, and processing fluency, we propose the concept of borrowed authorship: a condition in which ownership of a text and possession of the knowledge it contains come apart. We conclude that research integrity regimes should move from detecting machine-generated text towards assessing authorial comprehension.

Keywords

# AI-Mediated Writing # Authorship # Authorial Disconnect # Cognitive Offloading # Memory # Research Integrity # Metacognition # Academic Publishing

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Author Biographies

Ghulam Mohammad Khan (HKM Govt. Degree College Bandipora, Higher Education Department, J&K, India)

Dr. Ghulam Mohammad Khan is a writer, literary scholar, and academic from Kashmir. His writing moves between fiction, personal essay, and literary criticism, exploring memory, history, identity, power, and the intimate lives shaped by contested histories. His work is particularly interested in how ordinary lives and forgotten stories become repositories of larger historical and political truths. Khan holds a PhD in English from the Central University of Haryana, where he researched narratology and memory in postcolonial literature. He is the author of Anecdote, History and Kashmir: And Other Essays (2025), a collection that brings together literary criticism, history, memory, and personal experience to question received narratives of Kashmir. His fiction and essays have appeared in The Rumpus, Indian Literature (Sahitya Akademi), India Forum, KITAAB, Out of Print, The Wire, Madras Courier, Muse India, Kashmir Lit, Gulmohur Quarterly, and other literary publications. His long-form essay was published by The Rumpus in August 2026. He is presently an Assistant Professor of English at HKM Government Degree College, Bandipora, Kashmir.

Manzoor Ahmad Parey (HKM Govt. Degree College Bandipora, Higher Education Department, J&K, India)

Dr. Manzoor Ahmad Parey is an Assistant Professor of Education in the Department of Higher Education, Government of Jammu & Kashmir, presently serving at Government Degree College, Bandipora. He completed his Ph.D. in Educational Studies from Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, in 2026. His doctoral research examines schooling and educational realities in Kashmir. His academic interests include school education, critical pedagogy, educational policy and reform and emerging questions concerning AI and education.

Mubashir Hamid Mir (HKM Govt. Degree College Bandipora, Higher Education Department, J&K, India)

Dr. Mubashir Hamid Mir presently works as an Assistant Professor in Physics at HKM Govt. Degree College Bandipora, Jammu and Kashmir. He completed his MSC and Ph.D in Physcis from the University of Kashmir.

Irfan Ahmad Wagay (HKM Govt. Degree College Bandipora, Higher Education Department, J&K, India)

Mr. Irfan Ahmad Wagay presently works as an Assistant Professor in Kashmiri at HKM Govt. Degree College Bandipora, Jammu and Kashmir. He completed his MA and MPhil in Kashmiri from the University of Kashmir.

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