UC Irvine

Generative AI and Information Literacy: Academic Integrity and Citation

• 发布单位Publishing unit UCI Libraries
• 官方来源Official source https://guides.lib.uci.edu/gen-ai/citing
• 页面日期Page date Guide footer: updated Sep 22, 2026

---

Academic Integrity

As a student, am I allowed to use a Gen-AI tool like ZotGPT in my coursework?

The

UCI Policy on Academic Integrity for students states:

“All students are expected to complete a course in compliance with the Instructor's standards. No student shall engage in any activity involving any Academic Integrity Policy Violations.^{违规定性Integrity framing} No student shall engage in any activity that involves attempting to receive a grade by means other than honest effort, and shall not aid another student who is attempting to do so.”

Before you use any AI tool, ask yourself:

Is using this tool in compliance with the course instructor’s standards?

Does using this tool undermine your “honest effort” in this course to receive a grade?

If you have any doubts, it is best to ask your instructor, and keep in mind that each course may have different standards of what might be acceptable.^{摘录Excerpt}

If you are permitted to use an AI tool in your work and you have made the decision to use one, it may be a good idea to acknowledge your use as follows^{披露要求Disclosure}:

Which tool(s) did you use?

How did you use the tool (for what purpose, in what sections, etc.)?

How did you prompt the tool?

When did you use the tool?

Citing Generative AI

At this time, citing Generative AI is an evolving conversation, and some style guides have released official guidance on how to cite AI-generated text or images, while others have not. In addition, style guides have differing guidelines of whether tools (or companies) are “authors.”

Here are some examples of differences of how Gen-AI information might be cited in different style guides:

Citation Styles and Examples

APA

Chicago

IEEE

MLA

The APA released new guidelines for citing Generative AI in September, 2025. The guidance is detailed in three parts:

Part 1 - Reference formats

Part 2 - AI as a search engine and AI integrated into common software

Part 3 - Is AI "allowed" in APA Style?

Example given from "Part 1 - Reference formats":

“Our prompt was ‘I’d like a list of grammar topics that a student should understand by the time they graduate from high school.’ In this scenario, we want to include those chats as references in a paper.”

References

Anthropic. (2025, May 20).

Essential grammar topics for high school graduates [Generative AI chat]

. Claude Sonnet 4.

https://claude.ai/share/329173b2-ec93-4663-ac68-4f65ea4f166d

Google. (2025, May 22). High school grammar concepts overview [Generative AI chat]. Gemini 2.5 Flash.

https://g.co/gemini/share/a1306ce12929

OpenAI. (2025, August 21). High school grammar concepts [Generative AI chat]. ChatGPT.

https://chatgpt.com/share/68a77b60-0ee4-800c-9acc-cd3fd573c311

Perplexity AI. (2025, May 20). High school grammar topics [Generative AI chat]. Perplexity.

https://www.perplexity.ai/search/a457cb8c-c663-4c9b-b34e-cb03d8108b35

Parenthetical citations: (Anthropic, 2025; Google, 2025; OpenAI, 2025; Perplexity AI, 2025)

Narrative citations: Anthropic (2025), Google (2025), OpenAI (2025), and Perplexity AI (2025)

The Chicago Style FAQ suggests that “conversations” with Gen-AI chatbots can be treated in a similar fashion to private emails or phone conversations that couldn’t be accessed by others. It recommends including information about how the AI tool was prompted, and suggests “you must credit ChatGPT when you reproduce its words within your own work, but unless you include a publicly available URL, that information should be put in the text or in a note–not in a bibliography or reference list.”

For example, if a prompt was not given in-text:

1. ChatGPT, response to “Explain how to make pizza dough from common household ingredients,” OpenAI, March 7, 2023.

The

IEEE Editorial Style Manual for Authors (2023)

does not offer any official guidance on citing AI-generated content. Some suggest treating AI-generated text similarly to private communication.

MLA revised specific guidance on citing Generative AI in 2025

. Fundamentally, MLA uses a template of core citation elements that are flexible enough to accommodate citing AI-generated text or images. While MLA recommends that you do not treat an AI tool as an author, it suggests you should:

Cite a generative AI tool whenever you paraphrase, quote, or incorporate into your own work any content (whether text, image, data, or other) that was created by it

Acknowledge all functional uses of the tool (like editing your prose or translating words) in a note, your text, or another suitable location

Take care to vet the secondary sources it cites^{核实责任Verification duty}

An example of a works cited entry for a paraphrase of text output by ChatGPT might look like this:

“Describe the theme of nature in Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park” prompt. ChatGPT, model GPT-4o, OpenAI, 23 Sept. 2024, chatgpt.com/share/66f1b0a0-d704-8000-be9a-85f53c850607

Syllabus AI Policy Resources

• 发布单位Publishing unit UCI Division of Teaching Excellence and Innovation
• 官方来源Official source https://dtei.uci.edu/generative-ai/syllabus/

---

Is my AI policy – and the rationale – clear on the syllabus?

Recent guidance from the UC Irvine Academic Senate, through the Council on Educational Policy, now requires that all undergraduate course syllabi include a clear statement addressing the use of generative AI tools. Please review the full

Council on Educational Policy guidelines

.

In parallel, the

Graduate Council established the following policy (effective February 12, 2026):

All graduate course syllabi must include a policy on student use of generative AI in that course. There is no single campuswide policy governing student use of generative AI.^{默认规则Default rule} Instead, the content of each policy is left to the discretion of the instructor^{课程规则优先Instructor override}. Graduate programs are also expected to include this requirement, along with appropriate language, in their program handbooks.

We want to emphasize that the absence of a single campuswide policy is intentional. The pedagogical role of generative AI varies significantly across disciplines, course levels, and learning objectives. In some contexts, AI tools may support exploration, drafting, or problem-solving. In others, their use may be limited or prohibited to preserve specific learning outcomes or forms of assessment^{学习理由Learning rationale}. Because of this variation, instructors are best positioned to define appropriate use within their own courses.

Accordingly, all instructors are expected to:

Develop a clear, course-specific policy on student use of generative AI

Communicate that policy explicitly in the course syllabus

Ensure that expectations are transparent and consistently applied

Clear guidance helps students understand not only what is permitted, but why. It also supports academic integrity while allowing for thoughtful, discipline-appropriate engagement with emerging tools.

We recognize that this is an evolving space, and we encourage you to approach this as an opportunity to align your course policies with your learning goals and values as educators.