Navigating the Ethical Landscape of ChatGPT Integration in Scientific Research: Review of Challenges and Recommendations

Anushka Osadhi Waduge; Waruna Kulasooriyalage Virajini Jayathma Bandara Kulasooriya; Rochana Sheshan Sarathchandra Ranasinghe; Imesh  Ekanayake; Upaka Rathnayake; Don Pasindu Piumal Meddage

doi:10.47852/bonviewJCCE42023238

Authors

Anushka Osadhi Waduge Department of Human Resources Management, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka
Waruna Kulasooriyalage Virajini Jayathma Bandara Kulasooriya Ceylon Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Research, Sri Lanka https://orcid.org/0009-0004-7569-5916
Rochana Sheshan Sarathchandra Ranasinghe Ceylon Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Research, Sri Lanka https://orcid.org/0009-0009-2018-8251
Imesh Ekanayake Department of Computer Engineering, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Australia
Upaka Rathnayake Department of Civil Engineering and Construction, Atlantic Technological University, Ireland https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7341-9078
Don Pasindu Piumal Meddage School of Engineering and Information Technology, The University of New South Wales, Australia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.47852/bonviewJCCE42023238

Keywords:

ChatGPT, academic research, artificial intelligence (AI), scholarly publishing, ethics, privacy concerns

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the transformative potential of incorporating ChatGPT into academic research while addressing consequential challenges and ethical concerns. The chatbot, as a large language model (LLM), allows users to interact with it, providing advantages in the academic research context. The benefits of real-time interaction, information synthesis, and language generation have the potential to modernize how researchers engage with and extract insights from vast amounts of data. Additionally, ChatGPT demonstrates a strong command of programming languages, which is highly relevant in modern research related to machine learning and artificial intelligence. However, it still has certain limitations, such as the potential for generating fake citations and issues related to plagiarism. Users need to be aware of these limitations. Therefore, researchers must be careful regarding the potential and limitations of ChatGPT, as it can improve efficiency but may decrease the quality of work if misused. This study recommends guidelines in academic research for using LLMs like ChatGPT. Overall, it's not ChatGPT that downgrades the quality of academic work; rather, it's the irresponsible use of ChatGPT that does it.

Received: 25 April 2024 | Revised: 19 July 2024 | Accepted: 29 July 2024

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest to this work.

Data Availability Statement

Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analyzed in this study.

Author Contribution Statement

Anushka Osadhi Waduge: Methodology, Formal analysis, Investigation, Data curation, Writing – original draft. Waruna Kulasooriyalage Virajini Jayathma Bandara Kulasooriya: Software, Validation, Resources, Visualization. Rochana Sheshan Sarathchandra Ranasinghe: Software, Validation, Resources, Visualization. Imesh Ekanayake: Formal analysis, Investigation, Writing – original draft. Upaka Rathnayake: Writing – review & editing, Supervision, Project administration. Don Pasindu Piumal Meddage: Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing – review & editing, Supervision, Project administration.