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APA Citation Style (7th edition)

Check with your instructor first!

It is highly recommended that you confirm with your instructor what is permitted for a specific assignment prior to using an AI tool.

  • Some instructors and/or the nature of some assignments will not permit the use of ChatGPT or other generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools.
  • Citations created by generative AI should be reviewed for accuracy. Many citations have errors or reference non-existent resources.
  • Note: APA Style experts have provided interim guidance (see below) on citing AI in APA style. These may change.

Citing ChatGPT, an AI generative tool (June 2023)

The following guidelines were retrieved from the American Psychological Association (APA) Style Blog on June 5th 2023. Because of rapid developments in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and generative AI technologies such as ChatGPT, these guidelines may be updated periodically. Please refer to the APA Style Blog for the most recent updates: https://apastyle.apa.org/blog/how-to-cite-chatgpt

Quoting or Reproducing Text created by ChatGPT (APA Style Blog, "How to cite ChatGPT", https://apastyle.apa.org/blog/how-to-cite-chatgpt)

  • The citations below are adapted from the template for software in Section 10.10 of the APA Style Publication Manual. ChatGPT uses dates to differentiate versions. Other AI generative software may use other labeling conventions (i.e. Version 2.0)
  • In the case of ChatGPT, provide the descriptor for the tool [Large language model]
  • Do not repeat the publisher if the same as the author name
  • If you used ChatGPT or other AI tools in your research include this in your Methods section or in your Introduction
  • As each ChatGPT response is unique, full-text ChatGPT responses may also be added to the essay as an appendix.

Format

Author. (date). Title of tool (version) [Tool descriptor].Publisher. Source
Reference Example

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

In-text Example

Parenthetical Citation: (OpenAI, 2023)

Narrative Citation: OpenAI (2023)

In the text of your essay, provide the prompt you used and any portion of the relevant text that was generated. For example:

When prompted with "Is the left brain right brain divide real or a metaphor?" the ChatGPT-generated text indicated that although the two brain hemispheres are somewhat specialized, "the notion that people can be characterized as 'left-brained' or 'right-brained' is considered to be an oversimplification and a popular myth" (OpenAI, 2023; see Appendix A for the full transcript).