THE BOOK
AI & ACADEMIC INTEGRITY.
The Five-Stage Framework
A Framework for Ethical AI Use in Higher Education.
A practical framework for students, educators and institutions seeking to use generative AI while preserving intellectual ownership, academic judgement and accountability.
Who Is This Book For?
The book is designed for those learning with AI, teaching and assessing in an AI-enabled environment, and developing institutional responses to generative AI.
Use AI Without Surrendering Your Thinking
- Understand appropriate and inappropriate AI assistance.
- Retain intellectual ownership of assessed work.
- Document material AI involvement transparently
Teach and Assess AI Use More Constructively
- Give students clearer guidance on responsible AI use.
- Distinguish legitimate assistance from inappropriate substitution.
- Connect AI use with teaching, assessment and academic integrity.
Develop a More Coherent Approach
- Connect institutional policy, teaching and assessment.
- Support staff and student AI literacy.
- Establish a shared language for responsible AI use.
AI Has Changed the Academic Integrity Question
Generative AI can contribute at almost every stage of academic work—from initial exploration to analysis, writing and documentation. This makes a simple distinction between “AI used” and “AI not used” increasingly inadequate.
Detection Is Not Enough
Detection tools cannot determine whether AI was used responsibly or whether it replaced the intellectual work an assessment was designed to evaluate.
Students Need Clearer Boundaries
Students need more than lists of permitted and prohibited tools. They need to understand where AI may assist learning and where human judgement and intellectual responsibility must remain their own.
Institutions Need a Coherent Approach
Policies, teaching, assessment and academic-integrity decisions need a common framework for distinguishing legitimate AI assistance from inappropriate substitution of student work.
AI may assist academic work. It cannot assume academic responsibility.
Inside AI & Academic Integrity
The book moves from understanding the academic-integrity challenges created by generative AI to applying a structured framework in academic practice. It combines conceptual explanation, detailed guidance and practical examples to support responsible AI use in higher education.
How AI Changes Academic Integrity
Understand how generative AI changes traditional questions of plagiarism, authorship, intellectual contribution and responsibility in academic work.
The Five-Stage Framework
Discover a structured approach to responsible AI use through Explore, Analyse, Synthesize, Create and Document. |
Deep Dives into Each Stage
Examine what appropriate AI assistance looks like at each stage, the associated risks and the human responsibilities that must remain with the student.
Academic Misconduct
Understand when AI assistance crosses the boundary into inappropriate substitution of student work and other forms of academic misconduct.
Practical Academic Scenarios
Explore realistic academic scenarios showing how the framework can guide decisions about AI use in learning and assessed work.
Documentation and Citation
Learn how to record, explain and disclose material AI involvement, supporting transparency and accountability in academic work.
At the Heart of the Book: The Five-Stage Framework
The Five-Stage Framework follows the progression of academic work and identifies where AI may assist while keeping academic judgement, intellectual ownership and accountability with the student.
EXPLORE
Broaden enquiry and identify possibilities for investigation.
ANALYSE
Critically evaluate information, evidence and AI-generated suggestions.
SYNTHESIZE
Connect evidence and ideas to develop an integrated understanding.
CREATE
Produce work that reflects your own intellectual contribution.
DOCUMENT
Record and disclose material AI involvement transparently.
What Leading Academics Say
“Taken together, these texts make a constructive contribution to maintaining academic standards while recognising that AI may also be used as a learning tool in some contexts. They merit consideration by institutions and teams reviewing policy, assessment practice, and student guidance in a rapidly changing area.”
Executive Dean, Durham University Business School
“This is a major contribution in an era where academic institutions across the globe are and continue to wrestle with concerns and issues relating to plagiarism, authorship, and originality due to generative AI. This book and the workbook should be prominent in student and staff induction pack, classrooms and libraries.”
Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Professor of AI & Quantum Computing Nile University of Nigeria
“As someone who has sat on academic misconduct panels, I found many integrity breaches in quantitative and professional disciplines do not arise from malicious intent but from uncertainty about boundaries. This book addresses that uncertainty directly. The book and workbook would translate well into teaching materials, workshops, or policy guidance.”
Professor of Accounting University of Nottingham
About the Author
Dr Chikezie Okike
Dr Chikezie Okike is an academic, author and management professional whose career spans industry, higher education and academic leadership in the UK and internationally.
He holds a PhD in Management from the University of York, an Executive MBA from the University of Lagos, and an MSc in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Stuttgart. His professional experience includes product engineering, product management, university teaching, research and MBA programme leadership.
He has taught at universities including Durham, York and Newcastle in the UK, and Qassim University in Saudi Arabia. His experience in teaching, curriculum development and academic management informs his approach to the opportunities and challenges presented by generative AI in higher education.
Through AI & Academic Integrity: The Five-Stage Framework, he advocates a structured approach in which AI supports learning and academic work while human judgement, intellectual ownership and accountability remain central.
Get the Book
“AI & Academic Integrity: The Five-Stage Framework is available in paperback and Kindle editions.”
Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-9195589-1-2
Publisher: Information Managers Ltd
Publication date: 27 May 2026
Format: Paperback, 353 pages
Kindle Edition
ISBN: 978-1-9195589-2-9
Publisher: Information Managers Ltd
Publication date: 27 May 2026
Format: Kindle eBook
Understanding the Framework Is the Beginning
The companion Workbook turns the Five-Stage Framework into structured practice through activities, cases, reflection and documentation exercises.