Artificial Intelligence in Research

The Importance of Citing

Citing within research papers is a form of scholarly communication. It allows the author/researcher to ethically source information from other researchers. It allows students to relay to their professors where they got the information from. Not citing the original source of information or improperly citing can lead to cases of plagiarism.

This becomes a problem with Generative AI tools. Students may not feel the need to cite the information generated through AI. It is important, however, to inform the reader that AI was used. Not informing the reader that information was generated by a tool like ChatGPT is an inappropriate use of AI. To handle citation questions surrounding AI, many citation styles have recognized the need to incorporate AI citations into the guidelines. At the moment, you will not find these guidelines in the official print manuals, but you will be able to find them on the official citation styles' websites and blogs.

Generated Citations/References

Citations generated from databases, citation managers, and AI are often not cited properly. You should use caution when using any automatically generated citations, especially those generated by AI. ChatGPT and other AI tools may provide references to the information, but the references they provide may not be cited according to the citation styles' standards. All automatically generated citations from any citation or AI tool must be reviewed for mistakes.

ChatGPT and other AI tools have been known to also create fictitious sources and references to support the information they generate. Therefore, an added level of evaluation needs to be added to references provided by AI tools. ChatGPT has created articles and attributed them to real journalists, making it seem like the sources were real sources when they weren't. Researching and investigating the legitimacy of the sources generated by AI tools is a must for students and researchers.

APA Citing

ChatGPT

Additional information:

Ethically using AI in your research/papers.

APA recommends that you describe how you used ChatGPT or other AI tools in the Method/Methodology section of your research paper. In your Methods/Methodology section, describe how you used the tool in your research.

For other papers, like literature reviews or essays, you can use the introduction of your paper to describe how you used ChatGPT or AI in your research. 

In the body of your paper, you should provide the prompt you used and any other relevant portions of text that were generated as a response to your prompt.

Quoting

Since readers of your paper/research cannot recreate or retrieve your chats with ChatGPT or other AI tools, you should describe your prompt and interaction with the AI tool. An example of this, provided by Timothy McAdoo (2023) from APA Style, can be found below:

When prompted with “Is the left brain right brain divide real or a metaphor?” the ChatGPT-generated text indicated that although the two brain hemispheres are somewhat specialized, “the notation that people can be characterized as ‘left-brained’ or ‘right-brained’ is considered to be an oversimplification and a popular myth” (OpenAI, 2023).

Appendix

It is also suggested that you could add the full text of your session with ChatGPT to the appendix of your paper. This will allow the reader to refer back to the exact text generated from your prompts. If you add materials to an appendix of your APA, materials should be referred to at least once in the body of your paper.

MLA Citing

ChatGPT

Additional Information:

Authors

In MLA, it is not recommended that you use the AI tool as an author. Therefore, you will start your MLA citations with the prompt you provided to the tool, e.g. "Describe the symbolism of the green light in the book The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald"

Paraphrasing AI-generated text:

When paraphrasing from AI-generated text, your in-text citation should refer to the first few words you used in your prompt, e.g. ("Describe the symbolism").

Secondary Sources generated by AI:

If you choose to use the secondary sources cited by AI, you should always verify the legitimacy of the source cited. AI has been known to generate sources that are not real sources or cite the sources incorrectly, like linking a DOI that is not appropriate. MLA recommends that you acknowledge the secondary sources AI generates, but also suggests that you consult those sources yourself.

Chicago

Generative AI 

Additional Information:

Citing

Chicago states that credit does not need to be given to text generated by generative AI tools, like ChatGPT, but you should acknowledge that AI was used in your text. Student papers may require a more formal citation, and therefore, one should be provided.

ChatGPT, or any other AI tool, should be treated as the author. OpenAI, or other developers of the AI tool, should be treated as the publisher or sponsor. The URL is not essential in the citation because readers cannot get the cited content; however, a URL to the AI tool can be included.

Paraphrasing

If you provide edits to the text generated by AI, you should state so in your text or at the end of your endnote. This does not include changes made to the font or quoting style.