Using GenAI
If you are using GenAI, you should acknowledge this in some way. We would suggest you describe how you used the GenAI in the introduction or appendix to your paper, making it clear that you have not used it as a primary information source but as a TOOL, like the SPSS software for statistics or the PRISMA flow diagram for systematic reviews. It may also help to provide the entire response to your question/prompt in an appendix, or a link to the response.
If, for some reason, you need to cite GenAI, your SIT Librarians have provided suggestions below on how to do so. More information on AI and AI research tools can be found here.
Sometimes the English language can suck because a single word can have more than one meaning!
According to a LinkedIn article entitled What are the best practices for citing and acknowledging sources in academic publishing?
"By citing sources, you acknowledge the contributions of other researchers" (Section 1, 2024).
And yet, in a lecture, the librarian was heard to say that although it is quite uncommon to cite ChatGPT in an academic assignment, the use of GenAI should always be acknowledged. Huh?
Let us see if we can use ChatGPT to make things a little clearer....
In academic research, citing, referencing, and acknowledging all serve to give credit to the work of others, but they are used in slightly different contexts:
1.) CITING
2.) REFERENCING
3.) ACKNOWLEDGING
In short:
Based on experience, research, and critical thinking, the librarians decided this was a very good way to explain the differences.
While the definitions above are acceptable, ChatGPT will however fall short of the academic standards required for authoritative sources, such as peer-reviewed journal articles or expert-authored books. Additionally, its responses can change over time, so making research conclusions based on its information is not a good idea.
ChatGPT is best used to help paraphrase your own words, form your research problem into the PICO (Patient, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome) or PEO (Person, Environment, Occupation) frameworks, suggest search strings, suggest an outline for your literature review, and so on.
To repeat what was said in the lecture while "it is quite uncommon to cite ChatGPT in an academic assignment, the use of GenAI should always be acknowledged". Use ChatGPT as a research tool, and not as a research database.
APA 7th Citation Style
Please Note - APA does not yet have a specific format for citing the use of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) like ChatGPT, or text-to-image generators like the Canva AI app. We have provided TWO suggestions - one from the APA Blog entry and one from the SIT Librarians. Decide which citation format to use and use it consistently, and don't forget to check with your Faculty before using GenAI in your assignments and projects.
Suggested by the American Psychological Association 7 April 2023.
| Author | Date | Title | URL |
|---|---|---|---|
|
OpenAI. |
(2023). |
ChatGPT (Mar 23 version) [Large language model]. |
https://chat.openai.com/chat |
Suggested by the SIT Librarians.
| Author | Date | Title | URL |
|---|---|---|---|
|
OpenAI. - use Google for Gemini, or Microsoft for Copilot |
(2023, April 26). - when the response was generated |
ChatGPT response to "Can I use ChatGPT for my university assignments" [Generative artificial intelligence]. - replace the word ChatGPT with Copilot (previously Bing), Canva, Gemini (previously Bard), etc.
- if you have asked a long and involved question or prompt (or used more than one prompt to get the result you wanted), you may need to use a shortened version, for example, if your question was... ChatGPT response to "What is the impact of a content knowledge professional development workshop using a knowledge packet on a teacher's pedagogical content knowledge and student learning in an upper elementary tennis unit." ...you could shorten it, removing the quotation marks, but still retain the basic meaning... ChatPGT response to a prompt on the impact of a content knowledge workshop on teacher knowledge and elementary student learning in a tennis unit.
- if there are images, tables, charts, etc. involved... ChatGPT response to "What is the impact of a content knowledge professional development workshop using a knowledge packet on a teacher's pedagogical content knowledge and student learning in an upper elementary tennis unit. Can you present the information in table format." ...our suggestion would be to indicate this in the following manner... ChatPGT response to prompts for a table on the impact of a content knowledge workshop on teacher knowledge and elementary student learning in a tennis unit. |
https://chat.openai.com - or https://gemini.google.com/app (previously https://bard.google.com) or https://www.bing.com/?/ai Things change fast in the AI world! ChatGPT has since introduced a sharable link for your chats. If the AI you are using has a sharable link, you can include it here instead of the chatbot URL. Then you need not include a copy of the entire chat in the rest of your assignment. |
IEEE Citation Style
Please Note - IEEE does not currently have guidelines for citing generative AI. We recommend following the guidelines for Unpublished Material / Private Communication, or Website.
Suggested by SIT Librarians.
| In-Text Citation | Reference |
|
In-text citations appear on the line, in square brackets, inside the punctuation. Grammatically, they may be treated as if they were footnote numbers.
Basic format: [Number as it appears in reference list] e.g: The thematic categories were generated in OpenAI's ChatGPT [4] as follows...
|
You may choose to reference the prompt, or just the information type (i.e Generative AI).
Basic format: 1) Unpublished material / private communication Author, Source [Generative artificial intelligence], Abbrev. Month, year. Available: Web Address. e.g: OpenAI, ChatGPT [Generative artificial intelligence], Aug 2023. Available: https://chat.openai.com/chat
2) Website:
Author. “Prompt.” Website Title. Date Accessed. [Generative artificial intelligence]. Available: Web Address. e.g: OpenAI. “Identify thematic categories from this list.” ChatGPT. Accessed: Oct 10, 2022. [Generative artificial intelligence.] Available: https://chat.openai.com/chat |
Nursing and Allied Health students...
With the increasing usage of artificial intelligence (AI) in academia, we need to think about how to acknowledge the use of AI in the PRISMA flow diagram. One of the few examples that we have managed to find...
Whether you use Keenious AI or Keenious.ai, we would suggest placing the number under the Identification of studies via other methods option as these AI tools are more search engines than databases.
When it comes to the search strategy section of your paper, it would be good to explain how you used the AI tool. As we can find no formalized way of doing this yet, we would suggest something like this...
To date there is no officially accepted way of acknowledging how you use GAI. We would like to suggest the following format:
I acknowledge the use of [name and link of the GAI used] to [how you used the GAI]. The prompts entered on [day month year] included [list the prompts]. The output from these prompts was used to [how you used the GAI response]. I confirm that no content generated by AI has been presented as my own work.
For example:
I acknowledge the use of ChatGPT https://chat.openai.com to suggest an outline for this literature review assignment. The prompts entered on 5 September 2023 included:
The output from these prompts included seven outline suggestions. Four of these suggestions were modified and adapted by me for use in my assignment. I confirm that no content generated by AI has been presented as my own work.