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How to Reference GenAI
How do I cite AI-generated content in my assessments?
It is best not to use Gen AI as a source for your assessments, so you should not be directly referencing anything it produces as a source. You should be researching more credible and authoritative material and cite those as a reference.
Note: There are times you may wish to directly cite Gen AI. You may wish to quote the output of ChatGPT as an example of the kinds of material that can be produced by Gen AI, in opposition to Human-created work, or may have been asked by your Lecturer to prompt Copilot, include its output, then demonstrate how you would edit the Gen AI response.
If you have been asked to directly cite Gen AI, the American Psychological Association (producers for APA 7th Edition Referencing Style as used at ECU) suggest including in-text citations as you would for any other source:
"OpenAI's ChatGPT (2022) responded with..." or,
"… the following graph (Microsoft, 2024) depicts..."
And including a reference list entry for each source formatted as:
Company. (Year). Name of the service (Version) [Description of the tool]. URL
For example:
OpenAI. (2022). ChatGPT (Version 3) [AI text generation tool]. https://chat.openai.com/
You can check out the Library Referencing Guide at "Software/apps, code, datasets, and AI tools" for more.
Acknowledging your use of GenAI
If you use generative AI like a tool to help your study and research process (as discussed in this guide), you must still acknowledge the use you have put it to even though it has not been used to directly create assessment output.
At the end of your assessment you must include a written statement of any supporting tools you have used to help create the assessment, including the use of generative AI.
Include the following details:
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Which tools you have used, with the version number or identifying details (such as date accessed), and
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How you have used them.
For example:
"Acknowledgement: I acknowledge the use of ChatGPT (Version 4o) to brainstorm ideas for the structure and to help me understand what the cultural norms are. I used Copilot (Enterprise version) to edit my draft,” or
"Acknowledgement:
Copilot (September 8 version) was used to brainstorm ideas and I assessed its results for biases, and unless otherwise referenced all images used in this presentation to demonstrate Gen AI hallucinations were created using DALL-E (Version 3.8)."
See the Library Referencing Guide at "Software/apps, code, datasets, and AI tools" for more detail on acknowledging the use of Gen AI in your work.
Academic Misconduct
Academic Misconduct
Gen AI tools are very new, and you may be identified as having used a tool like Copilot or ChatGPT when you have not. It is best practice to save drafts and keep notes of how you wrote your assessment, so that you can prove your own work.
Not giving credit to Gen AI tools counts as plagiarism. If you get caught, you could get anything from a warning letter to losing marks, failing the assignment, or even more serious actions like being suspended.
See ECU policies on Academic Misconduct.
Academic Skills @ ECU
See the Academic Skills @ ECU Canvas site for more details on your responsibilities regarding Academic Integrity.
