A Practical, Low-Cost Workflow for Using Free Artificial Intelligence Tools in Medical Scientific Writing: A Tutorial (Preprint)

UNSTRUCTURED Scientific writing is a core competency in medical education and academic medicine, yet it remains a major barrier for early-career clinicians and researchers, particularly in resource-limited settings. Common challenges include limited formal training in scientific writing, heavy clinical workloads, restricted access to journals and editorial support, and difficulties writing in English as a non-native language. Recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) have generated widespread interest as potential tools to support academic writing. However, most available guidance focuses on proprietary platforms or presents overly generic advice generated by large language models, offering limited practical value for trainees and educators working under real-world constraints. In this Viewpoint, we present a practice-informed, tool-agnostic workflow illustrating how freely accessible or freemium AI tools may be used to support scientific writing in medical research and education. Rather than claiming empirical validation or comparative performance, we offer a scholarly perspective grounded in the lived experience of medical educators and researchers who routinely supervise early-career authors. We argue that the educational value of AI lies not in content generation, but in supporting core academic skills such as literature navigation, structured reading, drafting clarity, and iterative revision. We outline key functional categories of free AI tools relevant to scientific writing, including literature discovery, reference management, PDF-based summarization, drafting and editing support, and table or figure preparation. We also address important limitations, including learning curves, internet connectivity requirements, data privacy concerns, disciplinary variability, and the risk of over-reliance on AI at the expense of critical thinking. Ethical considerations and transparency in AI use are emphasized in line with current editorial guidance. We conclude that, when used deliberately and ethically, free AI tools may help to lower barriers to scientific writing for medical trainees and early-career researchers. Their greatest educational value lies in complementing—not replacing—foundational research skills, thereby supporting more equitable