The Library is not responsible for giving guidance on acceptable use of AI in academic assignments. Before using generative AI you should ensure that you know what the permitted use is for each individual assignment as even if use of generative AI tools is permitted there are a number of ways it could be used so you need to know exactly which of these are permitted, and this could differ across different assignments and modules.
Please check the following MyNapier guidance on Artificial Intelligence Tools and Your Learning, and with your module leader for further guidance on accepted use of AI tools and content in your academic work. Generative AI is evolving rapidly and there is not yet general consensus on how to acknowledge and reference it. This guidance will therefore continue to be reviewed and updated. This guidance was last updated in March 2024.
If you are writing for publication please check with the journals/publishers you intend to publish with for their guidance on accepted use of AI tools and content. Please be aware that the UK Government is currently still developing a Code of practice on copyright and AI and any AI generated content you publish may not be covered by current copyright laws and protections. You may also want to refer to Napier’s interim guidance for staff on the Responsible use of AI LLMS to protect personal and corporate information.
This guidance covers how to cite and reference AI tools and content in APA 7th style. If you are required to use a different referencing style then please speak to your module leader for guidance on how to reference AI tools and content in the style you are expected to use.
Note: If you are using a reference manager or other reference generator tool to generate your references then please be aware that not all these tools have AI listed as a source type, therefore we recommend that any generated references to AI tools or content are manually checked using the guidance below.
We recommend that you evaluate AI generated content carefully and critically as the content may contain incorrect, biased, or fabricated information, sources of evidence and references. Generative AI is not an original source of information, it reproduces information from other sources (sometimes identified, and other times not).
Sometimes AI outputs may provide references to information sources that have been used to generate the output, but you need to request citations and references as part of your prompt for these to be included.
AI generative tools could also use biased sources to generate outputs so regardless of whether sources are cited or not you need to carefully evaluate the output. We recommend that you verify the accuracy of AI generated content using reliable published sources of information.
Even if an AI output does include citations and references there can be inaccuracies including:
Sometimes you might use generative AI in the process of an assignment to develop ideas or concepts, but won’t quote or paraphrase the information within the assignment itself. APA 7th requires acknowledgement of the use of AI tools for this purpose. You may be provided with a cover sheet or other specific instructions as part of an assignment to acknowledge AI use so please follow any of these requirements.
For APA 7th style you should explain how you used the AI tool(s) and then you must also include screenshots of the outputs in an appendix, therefore you must make sure you are saving screenshots of any AI output so you can reference it accurately.
Example 1
I acknowledge the use of ChatGPT (https://chat.openai.com/) to help develop keyword search terms for this assignment. I entered the following prompts on the 18th February 2024:
The AI output was used to search for journal articles in the CINAHL and APA PsycInfo databases. A copy of the original outputs is attached as Appendix A.
Example 2
I acknowledge the use of Bing Chat (https://www.bing.com/search) to help find suggested reading on my topic assignment. I entered the following prompt on the 10th Jan 2024:
A copy of the original output is attached as Appendix B.
Example 3
I acknowledge the use of ChatGPT (https://chat.openai.com/) to help plan a structure for my presentation. I entered the following prompt on the 27th February 2024:
A copy of the original output is attached as Appendix C.
Example 4
I acknowledge the use of ChatGPT (https://chat.openai.com/) to improve the grammar within my final assessment. I confirm that no content generated by AI has been presented as my own work.
Note: If you have used AI purely to check your grammar then you do not need to include the prompt input into the AI tool or the output generated by the AI tool.
Generative AI content is produced in response to the prompts you input into the tool, and the material generated is not published or replicable by others. This means that unlike published sources of information it cannot be linked to or retrieved again either by you or others. This impacts how it is referenced as one of the purposes of referencing is to enable the person reading your work to find and access the original sources of information that you cite and reference. Therefore, it is important to document the exact text created because ChatGPT will generate a unique response in each chat session, even if given the same prompt.
Content that cannot be retrieved by others is usually cited and referenced as ‘Personal Communications’, however AI generated content is not created by a person it is created by a large language model. The content should therefore be treated as an output of an algorithm and the AI tool needs to be credited as the author.
If including AI generated content within your assignment is allowed you still need to make sure it is clear which content the AI tool has created, the same way you would cite information taken from published sources.
In text citations – single author generative tool
Parenthetical: (OpenAI, 2023)
Narrative: OpenAI (2023)
In text citations – two author generative tool
Parenthetical: (Microsoft & OpenAI, 2023)
Narrative: Microsoft and OpenAI (2023)
Reference List Entry
Author of AI model used. (Year of AI model used). Name of AI model used (Version of AI model used) [Type or description of AI model used]. Web address of AI model used
Examples:
OpenAI. (2023). ChatGPT (3.5) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com/
Microsoft & OpenAI. (2023). Bing Chat (GPT-4) [Large language model]. https://www.bing.com/search
Note: The author is the people or organisation responsible for creating the AI tool, which will usually be a corporate author rather than individually named people.
The URL should be to the AI interface itself where possible, i.e. the homepage of the chat screen or AI interface homepage rather than the publisher homepage.
Some generative AI tools such as Midjourney and DALL-E 2 can create new images based on prompts from users which can be downloaded, but like generated text content is not published or replicable by others and cannot be linked to or retrieved again either by you or others.
Non-text generated AI content also needs to be referenced as well as text generated content. Follow the usual APA 7th Guidance for Figures and Tables when adding AI generated figures and tables into your work.
There is a lot of debate regarding AI and copyright, however in order to provide accurate information about where the image has been sourced/generated you must detail the AI tool and prompt in the copyright attribution as per the example below.
Figure 2
Bear in the Mountains
Note: The image was generated using DALL-E (OpenAI, 2022) with the prompt "A naturalistic image of a bear in a meadow with wildflowers on a sunny day and snow-capped mountains and forests in the background."
Reference List
OpenAI. (2022). DALL-E (Version 2) [Artificial intelligence system]. https://openai.com/dall-e-2