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A Guide to Good Referencing Skills

Citing AI Generated Content

At present, most citation styles do not have specific guidelines for referencing ChatGPT or other GenAI tools. The following are some available guidelines or recommendations from a few citation styles.

APA style

How to cite ChatGPT - APA Style Blog (April 7,  2023)

The guide covers examples on:

  • Quoting or reproducing the text created by ChatGPT in your paper (in general, treat as "Personal communication")
  • Creating a reference to ChatGPT or other AI models and software (in general, treat as "Software")

IEEE style

According to the IEEE  Submission and Peer Review Policies -> Guidelines for Artificial Intelligence (AI)-Generated Text

"The use of content generated by artificial intelligence (AI) in an article (including but not limited to text, figures, images, and code) shall be disclosed in the acknowledgments section of any article submitted to an IEEE publication. The AI system used shall be identified, and specific sections of the article that use AI-generated content shall be identified and accompanied by a brief explanation regarding the level at which the AI system was used to generate the content.

The use of AI systems for editing and grammar enhancement is common practice and, as such, is generally outside the intent of the above policy. In this case, disclosure as noted above is recommended."

We suggest referring to AI-generated content as Software in IEEE style. 

Basic format for Software:
Title of Software: (version or year), Publisher Name. Accessed: Date (when applicable). [Type of Medium]. Available: URL

Example: 
[1] ChatGPT (2023), OpenAI. Accessed Aug 2, 2023. [Online]. Available: https://chat.openai.com/

MLA style

How do I cite Generative AI in MLA Style?  - MLA blog (March 17, 2023)

Chicago style

Recommendations for Citing ChatGPT & other tools - Chicago Style Blog

Other helpful guides

 

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