REVIEW article
Front. Educ.
Sec. Digital Education
This article is part of the Research TopicThe Role of AI in Transforming Literacy: Insights into Reading and Writing ProcessesView all 5 articles
Artificial Intelligence in Academic Literacy: Empirical Evidence on Reading and Writing Practices in Higher Education
Provisionally accepted
- 1University of Almeria, Almería, Spain
- 2Universidad de Granada, Granada, Spain
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Academic reading and writing constitute fundamental competences in higher education that enable access to disciplinary knowledge and participation in academic communities. The incorporation of Artificial Intelligence has transformed these practices, yet empirical research examining validated instruments to measure students' beliefs, perceptions, and practices remains incipient. This systematic review followed PRISMA 2020 guidelines to identify empirical studies that examine the use of AI tools in university students' reading and writing processes, specifically locating surveys, questionnaires, and methodologies with clear information on their design, validation, and application adaptable for future studies in academic literacy. The search in Scopus and Web of Science between January 2023 and April 2025 yielded 4,248 initial results, with 55 studies meeting inclusion criteria after rigorous screening based on empirical content with validated instruments and minimum sample requirements. The corpus reveals predominance of quantitative methodologies with instruments developed and subjected to rigorous statistical validation, including the ChatGPT Usage Scale, AILS-CCS scale measuring four AI literacy dimensions, SIUAIT index for institutional integration, and adaptations of technology acceptance models (TAM, TPB, UTAUT). Students employ AI primarily for idea generation, text structuring, and revision, driven by perceived usefulness, intrinsic motivation, and facilitating conditions. The findings demonstrate five critical themes: AI impact on academic skills development, ethical concerns regarding integrity and authorship, need for critical digital literacy, disparities between perceptions and preparedness, and necessity for redefining assessment methods. These validated instruments provide a methodological foundation for future research, as institutions require empirical tools to guide pedagogical integration of AI as a complementary resource within academic literacy frameworks.
Keywords: Academic Literacy1, Artificial Intelligence2, Reading practice3, Writing practice4, higher education5
Received: 08 Sep 2025; Accepted: 03 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Baldrich, Pérez-García and Santamarina Sancho. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Kevin Baldrich, kbr955@ual.es
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