Skip to Main Content

APA 7 Referencing

General advice

The following advice is based on a letter sent to all Äkonga recently regarding the use of AI in assessments and study.  

In terms of referencing, remember:

  • every time you use information from a source (including AI), you need to acknowledge this.
  • as with all sources, you need to fact check information from AI for accuracy.
  • include a brief statement at the start of the reference list if you have used AI to help with brainstorming or structuring your assessment, even if you have not referenced it.
  • It is important to remember that you must paraphrase in your own words any information you use from AI.  If you do include a direct quote from AI, this needs to be correctly formatted in APA style using speech marks and a citation.

Using AI during completion of assignment

If you have used AI during the process of writing your assignment, you should include a brief statement at the beginning of your reference list.

Include: 

  • which AI you used
  • how you used AI

Examples:

"I used ChatGPT 3.5 to brainstorm ideas for this essay and provide an outline of each section prior to writing."

"I used BARD to ask me questions about the assessment topic and provide feedback on my reponses.  I also incuded one quote from BARD."

In-text citations for AI

 

While we would not recommend that you should be frequently referencing AI, normal APA referencing rules apply should you do so. 

Example of a citation at the end of a sentence:

(OpenAI, 2023).

 

Example of citation within the narrative:

OpenAI (2023) stated that...

 

(APA Blogg, April 7, 2023)

AI Reference List entry

OpenAI. (2023). ChatGPT (Mar 14 version) [Large language model]. https//chat.openai.com/chat

 

(APA Blogg, April 7, 2023).