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IEEE Citation Style

Information for generative A.I.

As of March 2024, IEEE had not published instructions on how authors should cite information they retrieve from generative A.I. tools such as Chat GPT, though they have been clear that it is is crucial to be transparent about the use of A.I.

 The use of content generated by artificial intelligence (AI) in an article (including but not limited to text, figures, images, and code) shall be disclosed in the acknowledgments section of any article submitted to an IEEE publication. The AI system used shall be identified, and specific sections of the article that use AI-generated content shall be identified and accompanied by a brief explanation regarding the level at which the AI system was used to generate the content.

It is advisable to state in the text of your paper how you have used artificial intelligence and also to check with your instructor about how they would like you to cite that material.

Here are two approaches you could take cite information you get from artificial intelligence:

  • Treat it like personal correspondence:

Because you can receive two different answers to the same question asked to Chat GPT, your reader cannot verify the accuracy of what you are citing. So you could treat AI-generated materials similar to personal communication with an individual.

Citing personal communication should follow these guidelines:

Author's initials, Author's surname, private communication, Abbrev. Month, year.)

So an example of how you could cite Chat GPT is:

(OpenAI's ChatGPT, private communication, 10 March 2023).

 

  • Treat it like software.

Because Chat GPT - or whatever other A.I. you use - is software, you could cite the information you find in the same way you cite other software you might use to support your paper. Citing software should follow these guidelines:

Title of Software (version or year), Publisher Name. Accessed: Date (when applicable). [Type of Medium]. Available: URL.

So an example of how you could cite Chat GPT is:

[12] ChatGPT (March 14 version), OpenAI. Accessed: Apr. 18, 2023. [Large language model]. Available: https://chat.openai.com/chat