At Northwestern, unauthorized use of ChatGPT or other Generative AI tools is considered cheating and/or plagiarism as stated in Academic Integrity: A Basic Guide. However, different professors may allow limited use of Generative AI tools for brainstorming, and/or with proper citation, and/or accept its use on a case-by-case basis.
Additional guidelines and policies may be found under the Office of the Provost site and the Searle Center for Advancing Learning and Teaching.
Why is it important to cite your sources?
A citation is like an address for a source; citing tells the reader where you, the writer, found the source. Reader can visit the original source if needed.
Considering the points above, researchers should be aware of the following considerations.
ChatGPT specifically...
Citaton Guidelines for APA style, MLA style, and Chicago Manual of Style
Below are the guidelines for citing generative AI in APA Style, MLA Style, and Chicago Manual of Style. NLM, JAMA and Vancouver styles have not released citation guidelines for generative AI.
It's also worth reading this advice, since some uses don't fit the standard way of citing:
Should I cite the AI tool that I used? by Dr. Kristin Terrill, Iowa State University
How to Cite AI Tools by Dr. Kristin Terrill, Iowa State University
Publisher policies
Here are some statements from academic publishers about the use of generative AI.
Science Journals policy: "Text generated from AI, machine learning, or similar algorithmic tools cannot be used in papers published in Science journals"
Nature publishers: "... researchers using LLM tools should document this use in the methods or acknowledgements sections.”
Taylor & Francis Clarifies the Responsible use of AI Tools in Academic Content Creation
AI use must be declared and clearly explained in publications such as research papers, just as we expect scholars to do with other software, tools and methodologies.
AI does not meet the Cambridge requirements for authorship, given the need for accountability. AI and LLM tools may not be listed as an author on any scholarly work published by Cambridge
Authors are accountable for the accuracy, integrity and originality of their research papers, including for any use of AI.
Any use of AI must not breach Cambridge’s plagiarism policy. Scholarly works must be the author’s own, and not present others’ ideas, data, words or other material without adequate citation and transparent referencing.
Please note, individual journals may have more specific requirements or guidelines for upholding this policy. Other publishers are also coming out with statements like these.
Go beyond traditional citations
Professor Ethan Mollick (Wharton School), recommends going beyond traditional citations. He asks his students to include an appendix to their papers, where they list each prompt they used in ChatGPT and discuss how they revised those prompts to get better output.
See: Mollick, Ethan R. and Mollick, Lilach, Using AI to Implement Effective Teaching Strategies in Classrooms: Five Strategies, Including Prompts (March 17, 2023).
The 7th edition of APA Formatting and Style Guide does not currently have specific language on citing AI. The format below is from the APA Style blog entry "How to cite ChatGPT". Guidance may change with the next edition.
In-Text Citation
In APA, the author is the creator of the algorithm (ex. OpenAI for ChatGPT).
Format
(Corporation, Year information was generated)
Example
(OpenAI, 2023)
Reference List
Currently, generative AI is being cited like a personal communication.
Format
Corporation. (Date information was generated). AI Model (version date) [Large language model]. URL of model
Example
OpenAI. (2023). ChatGPT (Mar 14 version) [Large language model]. chat.openai.com/chat
The 9th edition of the MLA style guide does not currently have specific language on citing AI. The format below is from the MLA Style Center webpage, "How do I cite generative AI in MLA style?". Guidance may change with the next edition.
In-Text Citations
In MLA, there is no 'author' when citing AI. Use the prompt you typed into the tool to generate a response instead.
Format
("Shortened prompt")
Example
("List the themes")
Works Cited List
Format
"Prompt text" prompt. Model, version date, Corporation, Date retrieved, URL of Model
Example
"List the themes in Animal Farm" prompt. ChatGPT, 13 Feb. version, OpenAI, 8 Mar. 2023. chat.openai.com/chat
The 17th edition of the Chicago Manual of Style guide does not currently have specific language on citing AI. The format below is from the Chicago Manual of Style Online Q&A. Guidance may change with the next edition.
Footnote
In Chicago, the AI model (ex. ChatGPT) is considered the author and the corporation that developed the model (ex. OpenAI) is considered the publisher. The URL is not considered an essential part of the citation and can be added or removed.
Format
If the prompt has been included in the body of your text:
1. Text generated by AI Model, Corporation, Date retrieved, URL.
If the prompt has not been included in the body of your text:
1. AI Model, response to "Prompt," Corporation, Date retrieved, URL.
Example
If the prompt has been included in the body of your text:
1. Text generated by ChatGPT, OpenAI, March 7, 2023, https://chat.openai.com/chat.
If the prompt has not been included in the body of your text:
1. ChatGPT, response to “Explain how to make pizza dough from common household ingredients,” OpenAI, March 7, 2023, https://chat.openai.com/chat.
Bibliography
Conversations with AI tools can only be seen by the user, unless you are using a browser extension like ShareGPT or A.I. Archives. This means that a conversation you have with ChatGPT is not publicly available or reproducible. For that reason, Chicago Style recommends that you cite ChatGPT in a footnote or endnote, but not in your bibliography: "you must credit ChatGPT when you reproduce its words within your own work, but unless you include a publicly available URL, that information should be put in the text or in a note—not in a bibliography or reference list." ("Citation, Documentation of Sources")