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How To Use GenAI/ChatGPT Responsibly: Referencing GenAI

A guide to Generative AI, and the best ways to use it as a student.

NOTE: This guidance is subject to change as each style develops its standards. Please check with the publisher of each style for the most current guidance, or consult with your lecturer or a librarian.

It is best not to use GenAI 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. However, if you do choose to use GenAI tools for assignments, academic work or any form of published writing, you should give special attention to how you acknowledge and cite the output of these tools in your work. You MUST always check with your lecturer before using AI for any course work.

Some examples of when you may want to directly cite GenAI:

  • You wish to quote the output of ChatGPT as an example of the kinds of materials it produces, in opposition to human-created work.
  • You have been asked by your lecturer to prompt ChatGPT, include its output and then demonstrate how you would edit the GenAI response.

Our guide for referencing GenAI tools in APA 7th can be found here. 

You may want to consider including the activities you have used GenAI for, as well as including the exact prompts you used, for example, an appendix with the full GenAI response where necessary. This will allow your readers to have access to the exact text that was generated. It is particularly important to document the exact text created because many AI tools will generate a different response in each chat session, even if the same prompt is used. If you create appendices, these need to be called out at least once in the body of your assignment.

An in-text acknowledgement is helpful where the use of the tool is a part of the requested task, and your Lecturer has asked you to engage with GenAI as a part of the assessment.

This could look like:

"ChatGPT (Jun 2 version) was used to brainstorm ideas and I assessed its results for biases..."

OR

"Images used in this presentation to demonstrate GenAI hallucinations were created using DALL-E 3."

Quick Tips!

Remember:

  • Do cite and reference the outputs of generative AI tools when you use them in your work.
  • Do not use sources that are cited by AI tools without checking the original source yourself. This is because GenAI is known to hallucinate, or the cited content may be inaccurate.

  • When in doubt, remember that we reference for two main reasons. First, to give credit where credit is due and secondly, to help others locate the sources you used in your research. Considering these two things can help you to make a decision about using and citing GenAI content.

AI-generated Images

To date, there has not been any official guidance published (by the APA Style team) on citing AI-generated images.

Using these recommendations on referencing images and generative-AI content from our APA Referencing Guide, here is an example of how you might include and cite an AI-generated image in your coursework:

 

In-text citation:

(Microsoft Copilot & OpenAI, 2024)

Format example:

Figure 1

Example of an AI-generated image

Note. Image generated using the prompt, "Create an image of a rabbit eating a carrot in a watercolour style painting," by Microsoft Copilot and OpenAI, Copilot, 2024 (https://copilot.microsoft.com/)

 

Reference list entry:

Microsoft Copilot & OpenAI. (2024). Copilot (DALL-E 3). [AI Image Generator]. https://copilot.microsoft.com/

Latest Chicago Recommendations

The University of Chicago Press recommends that you cite generative AI tools when you reproduce its words (quoted or paraphrased) and other content (e.g., images) within your own work.

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