As covered on the previous page of this guide, ethical AI use is underpinned by three main principles: transparency, integrity, and accuracy. What this means is that it is important to acknowledge the tools you use, be honest about how you use them, and cross-reference the information you take from them to ensure it is accurate and current. This page is going to cover the acknowledge part, including when and how to reference different AI tools.
Always make sure you check with your module leader, personal tutor, or research supervisor what "appropriate AI use" means in the context of your course and your particular assignment or research before relying on AI.
Once you have approval for your AI use, there are many ways you can acknowledge it, depending on what exactly you have used AI for, which tool(s) you used, and what your department, course, or module's general approach to AI is. We have listed some suggestions and guidance below which you can take to your module leader or personal tutor so that they can advise you what the best method or combination of methods is.
Click on the dropdown menu options to learn more about when and how you could use each of the three options we have suggested, including guidance on how to reference AI tools both in-text and in your reference list. As a bare minimum and regardless of the acknowledgement method that you go for, it is always a good idea to document and save the details of how you have used AI until after you have received feedback or comments for your assignment or research, just in case you are questioned about your AI use or accused of misusing AI.
If you are not using AI at all, be sure to keep your notes and draft versions of assignments or research so that you can demonstrate you have completed the work yourself and that what you have submitted is your own, original work.
- You can find guidance on required information and formatting on Cite Them Right.
- Always remember to use in-text citations where these are relevant!
Most AI tools allow you to share or export transcripts of your chats or produce an output that can be saved and shared via online repositories or cloud drives like Google Drive, OneDrive, or iCloud. If your prompts are long and complex, you can include a condensed version of your prompt in the citation as long as your full prompts and outputs are available in the full transcript.
Citation information and order
- Name of AI company
- Year (in round brackets)
- AI-generated [medium] by [AI tool] with prompt ' ... '
- Day and month
- Available at: URL (Accessed: date)
In-text citation
When prompted about possible ways to acknowledge AI use responsibly, ChatGPT (2025) responded with...
Reference list entry
OpenAI (2025) AI-generated text by ChatGPT with prompt 'You are a world expert on artificial intelligence and are currently teaching ethical use of AI in a UK higher education institution. You are going to provide advice to a student about how to acknowledge and reference their AI use in coursework. Suggest two different strategies for ensuring their AI use is transparent, ethical, and in-line with academic integrity', 25 April. Available at: https://chatgpt.com/share/680bbecc-07f0-8005-84c1-81f57fbae2c6 (Accessed: 25 April 2025)
- You can find guidance on required information and formatting on Cite Them Right.
- Always remember to use in-text citations where these are relevant!
If the AI-generated content isn't shareable via a URL (for example a ChatPDF summary of an article or a conversation with a generative AI tool that doesn't support sharing links) and is only available with a personal login, cite the content as personal communication and describe it in more detail in your in-text citation. In cases like this, consider screenshotting, copy-pasting, or printing the webpage into a PDF that you can either attach as an appendix to your work or save and then produce upon request.
Citation information and order
- Name of AI company
- Year of communication (in round brackets)
- Medium of communication
- Receiver of communication
- Day and month of communication
- If and how this communication can be accessed
In-text citation
I used ChatGPT (OpenAI, 2025) to...
Reference list entry
OpenAI (2025) ChatGPT response to Oona Ylinen, 25 April. Transcript available in Appendix A.
OR
OpenAI (2025) ChatGPT response to Oona Ylinen, 25 April. Transcript available upon request.
- You can find guidance on required information and formatting on Cite Them Right.
- Always remember to use in-text citations where these are relevant!
If you did not produce the content, but found it online or received it from your tutor, use the citation order for that medium, but list the name of the AI company instead of author.
Citation information and order
- Name of AI company
- Year (in round brackets)
- Title of work
- [Medium]
- Available at: URL (Accessed: date)
In-text citation
The AI-generated flower (Shutterstock AI, 2023) ...
Reference list entry
Shutterstock AI (2023) Photo of pond with lotus flower [Digital art]. Available at: https://www.shutterstock.com/image-generated/photo-pond-lotus-flower-2252080005 (Accessed: 13 May 2025)
With this option, you would include a statement on your cover sheet that describes which tools were used in your work and how. You might also wish to include details such as how your AI use complemented your learning, how it ties into your learning outcomes, and how the person marking your work can obtain further details. The purpose of an AI disclaimer is to make it plain and clear how exactly AI contributed to your work, be transparent about which parts of the work have been through AI, and demonstrate that you understand your learning outcomes and have achieved them rather than replaced learning with AI use.
Example disclaimer
I used ChatGPT to brainstorm ideas for my essay. It provided several potential topics and subtopics, which helped me narrow down my focus to the impact of climate change on coastal ecosystems, and it provided me with a list of additional keywords to add to a keyword bank I had created. I also used Research Rabbit to identify three additional studies for my literature search after I had completed a traditional database search but struggled to find enough relevant academic literature. In the proofreading stage, I used Grammarly to check the grammar and style of my essay. It identified and corrected several grammatical errors and suggested improvements for clarity and conciseness, mainly in the methodology and findings sections. I have critically reviewed and edited all content to ensure the tools have not changed the meaning or contents of my essay, and it remains my own original work. AI chat transcripts are available upon request and a reproduction of my Research Rabbit literature graph is attached to this work in Appendix A.
By using appendices you can still demonstrate transparency and integrity in your AI use, but it allows you to keep your reference list and cover sheet tidy - this can be an especially useful approach if your AI use includes information you'd like to display such as a graph or a summary table but you can't to link it (like you could to an AI chat transcript) or to provide a back-up copy of an AI chat transcript, for example if the generative AI tool you are using doesn't have a share function.
Remember to signpost your appendices in your full text!
Example in-text citation
I used Elicit for an initial summary and data extraction table (see Appendix A for Elicit report) which I have cross-checked and edited with the contents of the papers.
Example appendix information
You could simply attach the contents of a PDF report, a screenshot of a graph, or ask your generative AI tool of choice to provide the chat transcripts in a shareable format, such as a Word document, that you can copy-paste the contents of into an appendix.
So, you know how to reference AI - now the question is when do you need to do it?
You might think of AI like you would any other search engine, study tool, or academic software. And for the most part it is - you wouldn't reference every Google search you run, and you don't have to include a reference to the reference management software you use - but AI also has more capacity and opportunity to be misused than any other study tool, so you will need to take your effort to acknowledge AI use a little further than you would general referencing.
You do not have to disclose anytime you ask Microsoft Co-pilot to explain a concept to you, but if you use AI in ways that could change the information you have available (e.g. using an AI tool to find sources), the contents of your work (such as using AI to proofread), or process data with AI (for example by using an AI tool to support statistical analysis), you should acknowledge the tools and the tasks you used AI for, using a method approved by your course or module leader (which could be a combination of methods!).
Learn how to apply AI for particular areas and types of study
If you have been through this guide in order, you will now have an idea of how generative AI works, how to write better prompts, and you have some tools for particular tasks that take you beyond just ChatGPT. You will also have learnt about what ethical AI use means in an academic context and how to acknowledge and reference your AI use according to academic conventions. If you haven't, you can always go back and explore the previous pages of this guide before moving forward.
If you feel confident about your AI literacy, the next step is to learn how to apply both generative AI and non-generative AI tools to particular areas of study. In the next few pages of this guide we will provide you with practical tasks for using AI to complement your assessments, enhance your research, and help you manage your personal studies.