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Citing Sources

Learn about frequently-used citation styles and citation tools.

Citing Generative AI Tools and Their Use

This guide's pages about the "Big Three" styles (APA, MLA, and Chicago) each have a tab about how to cite any use of, and tools used for, generative AI.


Styles listed under "More Styles" also include information about this. Those styles are:
 
  • ACM (Association for Computing Machinery)
  • ACS (American Chemical Society)
  • AMA (American Medical Association)
  • ASA (American Sociologuical Association)
  • ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers)
  • CSE (Council of Science Editors)
  • ICMJE (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, also known as "Vancouver style")
  • IEEE (formerly, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers)

Banner at the top of the ASTM site: 

  • "Artificial Intelligence Policy:  ASTM International prohibits the entry of ASTM standards and related ASTM intellectual property (“ASTM IP”) into any form of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools, such as ChatGPT.
         Additionally, creating ----derivatives of ASTM IP using AI is also prohibited without express written permission from ASTM’s President. In the case of such use, ASTM will suspend a licensee’s access to ASTM IP, and further legal action will be considered."

Banner at the top of ASTM Compass, their database of standards:

  • "Using Artiicial Intelligence (AI) on ASTM standards and related intellectual property is prohibited. Violations will result in suspension of access."

COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) is "committed to educating and supporting editors, publishers, universities, research institutes, and all those involved in publication ethics. COPE aims to move the culture of publishing towards one where ethical practices become a normal part of the culture itself."

Here is their position statement [bullets added for readability; bold face added] :

  • "The use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools such as ChatGPT or Large Language Models in research publications is expanding rapidly. COPE joins organisations, such as WAME [World Association of Medical Editors] and the JAMA [Journal of the America Medical Association] Network (January 2023) among others, to state that AI tools cannot be listed as an author of a paper.
     
  • AI tools cannot meet the requirements for authorship as they cannot take responsibility for the submitted work. As non-legal entities, they cannot assert the presence or absence of conflicts of interest nor manage copyright and license agreements.
     
  • Authors who use AI tools in the writing of a manuscript, production of images or graphical elements of the paper, or in the collection and analysis of data, must be transparent in disclosing in the Materials and Methods (or similar section) of the paper how the AI tool was used and which tool was used.
     
  • Authors are fully responsible for the content of their manuscript, even those parts produced by an AI tool, and are thus liable for any breach of publication ethics."

Hastings Center Report

"The Use of Generative AI Tools: Authors who have used large language models or other generative AI tools to develop or compose their paper should describe, in the cover letter and in a disclosure section or other relevant part of the manuscript, how in particular they used such tools. In describing the use of AI, err on the side of too much, rather than too little, transparency. AI tools cannot be listed as authors."
    For more on this topic, see "Editors’ Statement on the Responsible Use of Generative AI Technologies in Scholarly Journal Publishing" (September/October 2023; erratum from December 2023).