Overview

Paper: Marine Dgebuadze_APA.pdf • Style: APAiDominant Pattern Analysis Citations: Overall dominant style: APA-like author–date. No page/locator numbers used in any in-text citations. - Indirect — Support (dominant; 12 instances): Predominantly parenthetical citations in the form “(Author, Year)” for single works and “(Author, Year; Author et al., Year)” for multiple works. Features: comma between author and year, semicolons separating multiple sources, “et al.” (with period) for 3+ authors, no locators, and spacing as “; ” after semicolons. Occasional narrative variants appear as “Author (Year)” or “Author et al. (Year)” integrated into the sentence. - Indirect — Background (1 instance): Parenthetical, multiple-source format “(Author et al., Year; Author, Year)”, semicolon-separated, no locators, “et al.” for 3+ authors. - Other — Background (1 instance): Narrative author–date format “Author et al. (Year)”, authors integrated into the prose with the year in parentheses. - Not observed: Direct citations (no quotations or page-specific locators), Mention/Method/Acknowledge/Opposition types not present. Sources: Dominant reference list style: APA 7th–like. - Authors: “Last, F. M.” with periods after initials; authors separated by commas; ampersand “&” before the final author. Full author lists provided (no “et al.” in references). - Year: Publication year in parentheses immediately after authors, followed by a period — “(YYYY).” - Titles: Sentence case for article/book titles. No quotation marks. Source containers (journal/proceedings/book) presented in title case; journals and proceedings functionally treated as the container element (typically italicized; proceedings sometimes explicitly marked with italics via asterisks). - Journal articles: “Journal Title, Volume(Issue), page–page. https://doi.org/…” — comma before volume, issue in parentheses, page range with hyphen/en dash, DOI as an active URL. - Books: “Title. Publisher.” — publisher only (no location), consistent with APA 7th. - Conference proceedings: “In Proceedings Title, page–page. https://doi.org/…” — proceedings title as container (italicized in the provided text), page range, DOI URL. - DOIs/URLs: Included when available and formatted as HTTPS DOI links. - Content completeness: Entries generally include author(s), year, title, container (journal/proceedings/book), volume/issue and pages for articles, publisher for books, and DOI/URL where available.

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Citation Analysis

14
Total Citations
11
Correct Citations
9
Citations Not Found
2
Wrong Style Citations
2
Unlikely / False Plausibility

Source Analysis

12
Total Sources
5
Verified Sources
6
Non-Existent Sources
4
Non-Scientific Sources
0
Wrong Style Sources
1
Unused Sources
9
Incorrect Verification

Summary

Overall, the paper follows an APA-like author–date approach across 14 in-text citations and 12 bibliography entries, but several issues undermine precision, attribution, and retrievability. The most critical problems are ambiguous in-text attributions where multiple works share the same author-year, repeated misuse of “et al.” for a two-author work, inaccurate titles in the reference list (AI misspelled as “Al”), and misordering of multiple citations. These errors affect between one-third and two-thirds of the citations depending on the issue type and must be corrected to preserve academic integrity and enable reliable source verification. Strengths include recency (0 sources older than 10 years), a balanced mix of books, journals, and a reputable conference proceeding, and generally consistent punctuation and spacing in the author–date pattern. However, half of the bibliography entries show inconsistencies, one source is listed but never cited, and the reference list is not fully alphabetical—issues that can impair credibility and reproducibility. Two 2018 Luckin entries are reversed; by title, 'Intelligence unleashed...' should precede 'Machine learning...'. All other entries appear correctly sorted.

Key Findings

  • ! Ambiguous in-text attributions caused by identical author-year pairs lead to unclear source identification. At least 5 of 14 citations (36%) are ambiguous and need disambiguation. Examples: “(Huang, 2021; Luckin et al., 2018)” on p. 2 and “(Huang, 2021)” on p. 3 cannot be uniquely matched because two different 2021 authors share the surname (C. Huang, 2021; W. Huang, 2021). Likewise, “Mollick (2023)” on p. 3 and “(Mollick, 2023)” on p. 3 (two occurrences) are ambiguous because there are two distinct works by the same author in the same year. The analysis flags 9 citations (64%) as lacking a clear, unique match—often due to this ambiguity—compromising traceability and precise attribution.
  • ! Invalid use of “et al.” for a two-author work appears repeatedly, miscrediting authors and violating APA rules. Specifically, Bender and Gebru (2021) are cited as “Bender et al., 2021” in four places: p. 2 (“However… over-rely… (Bender et al., 2021)”), p. 3 (“…concerns… (Bender et al., 2021)”), and two narrative cases on p. 3 (“Bender et al. (2021)” twice). This affects 4 of 14 citations (29%), directly impacting author credit and formal accuracy.
  • ! Reference list accuracy problems: multiple titles contain the “AI”→“Al” typographical error, which hinders discoverability and signals weak quality control. Examples include: “Huang, C. (2021). Al and education…”, “Huang, W. (2021). Ethical considerations in Al-assisted…”, “Luckin et al. (2018). Intelligence unleashed: An argument for Al in education.”, “McKnight & Allen (2022). Al applications in academic writing…”, “McKnight, Hobson, & Freeman (2022). Writing with Al…”, and “Mollick (2023). The Al classroom…”. Half of the entries are inconsistent (6 of 12 = 50%), increasing the risk of failed lookups and citation verification errors.
  • ! Misordered multiple-source citations violate APA’s alphabetical ordering rule. Two instances reverse the correct order: p. 2 uses “(Mollick, 2023; Holmes, 2020)” (should be Holmes before Mollick), and p. 3 uses “(Luckin et al., 2018; Holmes, 2020)” (should be Holmes before Luckin et al.). These lapses (2 of 14 = 14%) reduce stylistic consistency and can confuse readers scanning grouped evidence.
  • ! Bibliography organization issues: the reference list is not fully alphabetical and contains a ghost source. The two 2018 Luckin entries are out of order—by title, “Intelligence unleashed…” should precede “Machine learning…”. One source (Selwyn, 2019) is listed but never cited. Such issues disrupt navigability and can mislead readers about the sources actually informing the paper.
  • Source quality and diversity are generally solid. All 12 sources are recent (0 older than 10 years), covering 2018–2023. There is a balanced mix of types: approximately 5 journal articles, 1 peer-reviewed conference proceeding (FAccT 2021), and 6 books from reputable academic presses (Oxford University Press, Routledge, MIT Press, Springer) and a major publisher (Pearson). No single journal or publisher dominates the list (>30%), and DOIs are included for journal and proceedings items, facilitating verification.
  • Several in-text practices are correctly applied and consistent. Examples include proper use of “et al.” for three-or-more-author works like “(Luckin et al., 2018)” and “(McKnight et al., 2022)” and correct punctuation and spacing within parenthetical clusters (commas between author and year; semicolons between works). This baseline consistency will make corrections simpler to implement uniformly.

Recommendations

  • Disambiguate same-surname and same-year citations in-text. For the two 2021 Huang works, include initials every time (e.g., “(C. Huang, 2021; Luckin et al., 2018)” on p. 2 and “(W. Huang, 2021)” on p. 3, as appropriate). For Mollick (2023), assign letter suffixes and apply them consistently in-text and in the reference list: order the two 2023 Mollick entries alphabetically by title (ignoring “The”); “The AI classroom…” becomes 2023a, and “Using AI tools…” becomes 2023b. Update all occurrences: “Mollick (2023a)” on p. 3 and “(Mollick, 2023b)” on p. 3.
  • Correct the improper use of “et al.” for two-author works. Replace all instances of “Bender et al. (2021)” and “(Bender et al., 2021)” with the proper two-author forms: narrative “Bender and Gebru (2021)” or parenthetical “(Bender & Gebru, 2021)”. Verify each occurrence on p. 2 and p. 3 and amend accordingly.
  • Fix alphabetical ordering inside multi-source parentheses. On p. 2, change “(Mollick, 2023; Holmes, 2020)” to “(Holmes, 2020; Mollick, 2023)”. On p. 3, change “(Luckin et al., 2018; Holmes, 2020)” to “(Holmes, 2020; Luckin et al., 2018)”. As a rule, always sort entries alphabetically by the first cited surname within a single set of parentheses.
  • Repair reference titles where “AI” is misspelled as “Al.” Update each affected entry to the correct title so databases and readers can locate them reliably. For example: “AI and education: Possibilities and challenges” (Huang, C., 2021); “Ethical considerations in AI-assisted research and writing” (Huang, W., 2021); “Intelligence unleashed: An argument for AI in education” (Luckin et al., 2018); “AI applications in academic writing and communication” (McKnight & Allen, 2022); “Writing with AI: Enhancing academic success through AI tools” (McKnight, Hobson, & Freeman, 2022); “The AI classroom: Transforming learning through artificial intelligence” (Mollick, 2023). Recheck Selwyn (2019) as well (“AI and the future of education”).
  • Alphabetize the reference list correctly and synchronize in-text citations with the revised list. Ensure the two 2018 Luckin entries are ordered by title (“Intelligence unleashed…” before “Machine learning and human intelligence…”). After assigning 2023a/2023b to Mollick, reflect these letters in both the reference list and all in-text citations.
  • Eliminate ghost entries and align coverage. Either cite Selwyn (2019) within the paper where relevant (e.g., on future-of-education framing) or remove it from the reference list. Every reference should have at least one in-text citation.
  • Perform a one-to-one cross-check between the revised in-text citations and the reference list. Confirm that each in-text citation uniquely maps to a single reference after disambiguation and that there are no unmatched items. Aim to reduce the 9 flagged ambiguous/unmatched instances to zero.
  • Run a final APA 7 compliance pass. Use a reference manager (e.g., Zotero, EndNote, Mendeley) with APA 7 style to regenerate citations and the bibliography. Verify author name formats, year placement, title sentence case, italics for containers (journals/books/proceedings), DOI URLs, and the correct use of ampersands and commas. This will standardize the document and prevent regressions.
  • Optionally strengthen academic rigor by increasing the proportion of peer-reviewed journal articles beyond ~50%. Where possible, supplement book-based claims with recent empirical studies and systematic reviews to deepen the evidence base.