Critical Reflection and Knowledge Validation in Doctoral Research: Between Autonomy, AI, and Digital Genres

Aims/Objectives. This lightning talk investigates how early-career researchers validate, challenge, and critically engage with the specialized knowledge they produce or circulate. It explores the shifting dynamics of autonomy, epistemic responsibility, and agency in academic knowledge dissemination—especially within digital genres and through the use of AI tools. The aim is to illuminate the role of discourse in shaping how emerging scholars understand their position in knowledge production. Methods. The talk draws on doctoral research conducted at Ovidius University of Constanța, combining discourse analysis with methodological observation of doctoral writing practices. Case studies of digital academic genres are examined alongside interviews with PhD candidates. The analysis focuses on how researchers negotiate credibility, authorial stance, and critical distance in their digital outputs. Results. Findings suggest that early-career researchers are increasingly engaging with digital tools and platforms to both establish and scrutinize their scholarly voice. Many adopt a hybrid stance, balancing traditional norms of epistemic caution with the affordances of open, reflexive dialogue enabled by digital genres. AI tools are often seen as both supports and challenges to epistemic responsibility—helping with structure and clarity, while raising concerns about originality and critical engagement. Conclusions. The study reveals that digital academic communication encourages new forms of epistemic agency, where early-career scholars assume more responsibility not just for knowledge creation, but also for its ethical mediation. Our proposal argues for critical / metacognitive literacy in navigating these emerging landscapes and highlights the need for doctoral training that addresses not just writing skills, but also reflective judgment and ethical knowledge circulation.