Referencing

GenAI tools such as ChatGPT can help you in a variety of ways, but it is important that you are aware of how to use them ethically - in an appropriate, responsible and transparent way. See the guidance on Study Zone for more information on how you can use GenAI responsibly.

If you are using a GenAI tool as part of your academic work, please check that you have used this guidance on how to acknowledge and reference your use of these tools.  

GenAI assessment categories

From the Academic year 2024-25, all your assessment briefs will include a statement about the ways in which you are permitted to use GenAI in that assessment. Assessments will either be:

• AI-integrated – where use of GenAI tools is part of the Intended Learning Outcomes of the modules or the assessment brief. In this category, in addition to following our referencing guidelines students are required to provide a history of the GenAI tools and prompts they have used, alongside associated outputs, as an appendix.  

• AI-supported – where ethical and responsible use of GenAI tools in the development of an assessment is supported. This may include using GenAI tools to summarise literature, improve the structure of your work or quality of English language.   All use of GenAI tools should be acknowledged in a statement submitted with their assessment and referenced appropriately. Students are asked to keep a record of the tools, prompts and outputs used so they are able to produce these if necessary, at a viva and demonstrate how they have built on this content to ensure the work is original.  

• AI-prohibited – where the use of GenAI tools is prohibited as their use prevents achievement of the module learning outcomes.  

1. Acknowledging use of GenAI tools 

It is important that you acknowledge that you have used GenAI tools in your work. You also must make clear how you have used these tools. Failure to do this may result in academic misconduct.

Declaring your use of GenAI in assessments

From the Academic year 2024-25, all assessments that come under the category of AI-supported and AI-integrated will be required to include a student declaration acknowledging their use of GenAI in their assessment. This will be included as an additional page at the front of the assessment, following this template.

When submitting your assessment, you must include the following declaration, ticking all that apply:

Please note: Submitting your work without an accompanying declaration, or one with no ticked boxes, will be considered a declaration that you have not used generative AI in preparing your work. 

If a declaration sheet cannot be uploaded as part of an assignment (i.e. at the start of an essay), students understand that by submitting their assessment they are confirming they have followed the assessment brief and guidelines about GenAI use.

If you have any questions about your assessment brief or ELE page, please contact your module convenor. You can also access a copy-and-paste version of the above checklist here.

2. Referencing use of GenAI tools 

In addition to your statements which acknowledge your use of GenAI in your academic work, you should also reference the use of GenAI where appropriate.

It is usually considered poor academic practice to include any content generated by GenAI tools in your work, unless you are explicitly reflecting on, analysing and evaluating the output of the software. Some assignment briefs might ask you to do this, especially if they include a focus on how to use GenAI in your subject. Failure to reference this content correctly may be considered Academic Misconduct.

Quoting from outputs: If you do include GenAI content in your work, including simple facts or definitions, you must enclose it in quotation marks and include a reference following your department’s referencing style.

Appending outputs: If your in-text citation is also referring to a larger section of content generated by GenAI, it may be appropriate to include this as an appendix, as you might do with other background information. See your assignment brief for further guidance on use of appendices.

Finding primary sources: GenAI might mention sources of information, and you may wish to refer to these. It does not always provide reliable summaries. You must therefore check the quality of these sources, read them yourself, and paraphrase content and/or select quotations from them to use in your assignment. You should then reference the primary source that you have read.
If it is not clear where the GenAI tool found the content, and you can't find an alternative source for the information, then it is safer not to use the information.

See Study Zone for advice on using GenAI responsibly when gathering information, reading, note making and writing.

Find your referencing style and follow the links to Cite Them Right (CTR). Once you are on the Cite Them Right homepage for your referencing style, go to the ‘Digital and Internet’ tab. You should see a link for Generative AI. Sometimes this is listed under ‘Software’. If your department is using a referencing style that is not included in Cite them right, you should visit the guidance for your style and ask your module convenor for further advice.