Academic Integrity in the Age of Artificial Intelligence: A Scoping Review (2026)

Abstract

The rapid proliferation of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) and large language models (LLMs) has fundamentally transformed the landscape of modern higher education, prompting a critical paradigm shift in how academic integrity is conceptualized. This scoping review synthesizes 20 cutting-edge academic publications from 2026 (retrieved via Google Scholar) to examine the evolution of academic integrity from mechanical plagiarism detection and punitive surveillance toward comprehensive institutional, pedagogical, and ethical redesign. The synthesis reveals that the primary systemic catalyst for academic misconduct remains the pervasive “publish or perish” culture and quantitative assessment paradigms that prioritize performance over moral growth. Contemporary scholarship moves beyond identifying individual infractions to address systemic vulnerabilities, student uncertainty, data privacy, and the degradation of higher-order cognitive skills (analyzing, evaluating, creating) resulting from unreflective AI reliance. To mitigate these threats, the review highlights four key integrative strategies: (1) adoption of ecosystemic models (e.g., A. Maleki’s Higher Education Integrity Ecosystem) linking governance, assessment, cultural norms, and individual agency; (2) implementation of process-oriented, authentic assessment frameworks (e.g., S. Lehane, A. Wright and P. Fenton’s Model for Practice and P.D.N. Ncube et al.’s PRISMA-based multi-stage evaluations) that render automated cheating obsolete; (3) operationalization of the AI3 model that integrated AI, academic integrity, and assessment innovation (C. DeLuca, L.Volante and M. Holden), and (4) proactive educational initiatives, AI literacy, and epistemic pluralism to safeguard neurodivergent learning trajectories. Ultimately, the academic community is transitioning from technocratic panic to building ethically resilient, adaptive educational ecosystems aligned with UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 4 and SDG 16).