Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) Resources

Plagiarism

Generative AI tools have introduced new challenges in academic integrity, particularly related to plagiarism.

Plagiarism is typically defined as presenting someone else's work or ideas as one's own. While a generative AI tool might not qualify as a "someone," using text generated from an AI tool without citing is still considered plagiarism because the work is still not the researcher's own. Individual policies for using and crediting GAI tools might vary from class to class, so looking at the syllabus and having a clear understanding from the professor is important.

A note about plagiarism detection tools:

A number of AI detection tools are currently available to publishers and institutions, but there are concerns about low rates of accuracy and false accusations. Because generative AI tools do not generate large amounts of text word-for-word from existing works, it can be difficult for automated tools to detect plagiarism. If you are using a plagiarism detection tool, please be aware of and transparent about the limitations of the tool. 

False Citations

Another area of academic integrity affected by GAI tools is that of false citations.

Providing false citations in research, whether intentional or unintentional, is an academic integrity violation. GAI tools such as ChatGPT have been known to generate false citations, and even if the citations represent actual papers, the cited content in ChatGPT might still be inaccurate.

There is a great study from the Columbia Journalism Review in which they reviewed eight different AI search engines and found they were all pretty bad at returning accurate citation information for news stories. Collectively the chatbots provided incorrect answers to more than 60% of the questions they were asked. You can read more here: https://www.cjr.org/tow_center/we-compared-eight-ai-search-engines-theyre-all-bad-at-citing-news.phphttps://www.cjr.org/tow_center/we-compared-eight-ai-search-engines-theyre-all-bad-at-citing-news.php

Related Recommendations

• Always check with your professor to find out if GAI tools are allowed to be used on an assignment. 
• Any use of AI should be acknowledged or directly cited. 
• If you are a researcher planning to publish in a journal, it is best to review that journal's policies on the permitted use of Generative AI tools. 
• It's important to always look up citations and check to make sure they are accurate, and if you're citing information from that source, to cite the original source rather than ChatGPT or whichever GAI tool you're using.

If your professor allows the use of AI for assignments, you should acknowledge your use of AI. If you use it in a way that leads to a direct citation, please check out our AI citation page (https://libguides.washjeff.edu/citationstyles/ChatGPTandGenerativeAI) for instructions on how to do this.

If your use is less specific, you may be better off making a more general acknowledgement. This could appear as an appendix to your paper or some other location specified by your instructor. Any acknowledgement of the use of AI tools should include the following:

• The name of the tool used and a link to the tool's website
• A description of the type of task you used the tool to accomplish (ex: edit text, generate code, generate images, etc.)
• A list of the specific prompt(s) you used
• An explanation of how the use of the tool is reflected in your submission. 

Here is an template for what this could look like: 

I acknowledge the use of [Name of AI tool & link] to [specific use of the AI tool]. The prompts used include: [list of prompts used]. The output from these prompts was used to [explain use]. 

Here is an example of how I used AI to decorate this guide:

I acknowledge the use of ChatGPT, https://chatgpt.com/, to generate an image for this LibGuide. The prompt I used was "create a picture of students studying in a modern college library". The output from this prompt is used on this guide for decoration.