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AI and Academic Integrity
Advice to help you ethically engage with and acknowledge Artificial Intelligence in your academic work.
Academic integrity is an underlying principle of research and academic practice. Through your work and approach to learning you are expected to demonstrate your development as an independent learner, researcher and critical thinker, including maintaining good academic practice. This involves completing your studies honestly and ethically, having respect for the work of others and recognising your responsibility to ensure fair assessment.
Poor research and academic practice or misconduct such as plagiarism, collusion, fabrication, or falsification, undermine the advancement of knowledge and innovation that are at the core of the University’s vision.
The overarching purpose of assessment is to demonstrate your understanding and ability to analyse and apply knowledge gained through your modules to your markers. Passing off someone or something's work as your own, whether this is copying in an exam, getting someone else to write an assignment on your behalf or claiming authorship of machine generated content (including text, code and creative works) means that you are not demonstrating your own skills and learning. As well as limiting your opportunities to develop as a learner, it is highly unethical.
When using AI tools to support your learning and in the development of your work you must maintain good academic practice. This will include:
- acknowledging AI sources through appropriate referencing where you have used content as an information source alongside your other reading
- demonstrating critical use of AI tools be acknowledging how, why, and when you used AI to inform your approach to the assessment or as part of the writing process
Academic integrity guidance
Acknowledging how you have used AI
Newcastle University's approach to the use of AI technologies to support your learning and assessed work requires you to openly and transparently acknowledge how and why you have used it. The emphasis is on demonstrating critical use of the tools, questioning their value, accuracy, and appropriateness for the task. Articulating how and where AI has informed or supported your work will allow you to demonstrate the development of your own learning while avoiding academic misconduct.
There are many different ways that you may have used AI tools in the preperation of an assessment. These could be tools built into existing applications or stand alone. While you may not have used content directly as a source of information in a quotation or citation, you may have used it as a digital assistant in the creation of your assessed work. To maintain good academic practice and the fairness of assessment you must acknowledge this contribution.
Be sure to refer to any guidance provided by your module tutors and read your assignment briefs carefully. You may find that your School or lecturer have specific requirements for how you are expected to engage with and acknowledge AI for any piece of assessed work.
How do you acknowledge the contribution of AI to your work?
It is good academic practice to provide a brief summary acknowledging how, why, and when you have used AI technologies. Describing not only what you did but why will help you be more critical in your selection and use of these tools, consider the role of AI in the learning process, and understand its impact on your work.
This may take the form of a short statement at the end of your reference list that includes:
- a list of the AI tools used and why you chose them
- a brief explanation of what you used the tool for (for example to improve the clarity of your writing, to gather information, to aid your understanding of a concept, topic or course materials, to generate new ideas or plan your writing, to check facts, to analyse data, to experiment)
- an annotated list of any prompts you found helpful, including a comment on why they were useful
If your module leader has indicated that you are required to submit a detailed acknowledgement outlining the tools used, prompts and output, follow this guidance.
Name the AI technologies and summarise how you have used them
For example:
- I acknowledge the use of <insert name(s) and url> to generate information for background research and at the drafting stage of the writing process with the creation of an outline structure for this essay.
- I acknowledge the use of <insert name(s) and url> to identify improvements in the writing style.
- I acknowledge the use of <insert name(s) and url> as an information source to generate materials that were included within my final assessment in my own words.
- I acknowledge the use of <insert name(s) and url> to create the images included in this presentation.
- No content generated by AI technologies has been presented as my own work
Describe how the information or materials were generated
Provide a description of the prompt or question you used, the output generated, and how you modified the material for inclusion in your assessment. Your module leader may ask you to include this information as an appendix at the end of your work.
For example:
- Prompts used with <AI name>: list your prompts
- Output generated: Provide a copy of the output created
- The output was modified as follows: briefly explain the changes you made
Provide a reference
Using guidance for the referencing style used by your subject, provide a reference for the tool you have used including the url and date accessed. Cite Them Right Online has guidance on how to provide a reference in the Harvard format, treating generative AI chat based tools as a form of personal communication.
For example:
- Cite Them Right Harvard - OpenAI Chat GPT (2023) ChatGPT response to John Smith, 28 March. Available at: https://chat.openai.com/APA.
- MLA - ChatGPT, 14 Mar. version, OpenAI, 28 Mar. 2023, chat.openai.com/chat.
Acknowledgement:
I acknowledge the use of ChatGPT (https://chat.openai.com/) to provide a background summary of the essay topic that I used to inform my basic level of understanding. I also generated a list of synonyms to help me expand my search and suggest some key articles on the topic, which were searched for in Library Search.
Description of use of AI:
Prompts used with ChatGPT were used to inform my initial research. Where information has been used directly in my work I have provided a citation.
Prompt 1: What is the role of Candida albicans in oral health and disease
Output 1:
Candida albicans is a type of fungus that normally resides in the oral cavity of humans as a commensal organism, without causing any harm. However, under certain circumstances, this fungus can overgrow and cause a range of oral infections, including oral thrush, denture stomatitis, and angular cheilitis.
Oral thrush is a fungal infection that results in the formation of white, creamy patches on the tongue, inner cheeks, and roof of the mouth. It is more common in individuals with weakened immune systems, such as those with HIV/AIDS, diabetes, or cancer, and in people taking antibiotics or corticosteroids.
Denture stomatitis, also known as denture-related candidiasis, is a common fungal infection that affects individuals who wear dentures. It is characterized by inflammation and redness of the oral mucosa covered by the dentures, and it can be caused by poor oral hygiene, ill-fitting dentures, or a weakened immune system.
Angular cheilitis, also called perleche, is a fungal infection that affects the corners of the mouth. It is often caused by a combination of factors, such as excessive moisture, nutritional deficiencies, or a weakened immune system.
In summary, Candida albicans plays a complex role in oral health and disease, as it can be both a commensal organism and a pathogenic fungus, depending on the host's immune status and other factors. Regular dental check-ups and good oral hygiene practices are essential to prevent the overgrowth of Candida albicans and other harmful microorganisms in the mouth.
Prompt 2: alternative synonyms for candida albicans
Output 2: Here are some alternative synonyms for Candida albicans:
- Monilia albicans
- Oidium albicans
- Yeast infection
- Thrush
- Candidiasis
Prompt 3: Key articles to read about the topic
Output 3:
Here are some key articles you may want to read about Candida albicans and its role in oral health and disease:
- "Candida albicans and oral candidiasis: A review of pathogenesis, diagnosis, and therapeutic strategies" by Hasanreisoglu et al. (2019) in Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology.
- "Oral candidiasis: a review" by Williams et al. (2011) in Oral Diseases.
- "Candida albicans interactions with the oral bacterial microbiota" by Diaz et al. (2019) in Journal of Fungi.
- "Candida albicans: pathogenesis, diseases and laboratory diagnosis" by Kothari and Sagar (2017) in Open Journal of Clinical Diagnostics.
- "Oral candidiasis: causes, types, and treatment" by Gendreau and Loewy (2011) in Journal of Evidence-Based Dental Practice.
These articles provide in-depth information on the pathogenesis, diagnosis, and treatment of Candida albicans-related oral infections, as well as the interactions between Candida albicans and other microorganisms in the oral microbiota.
Reference:
OpenAI ChatGPT (2023) ChatGPT in response to George Smith 23 March. Available at: https://chat.openai.com/
Acknowledgement:
I acknowledge the use of Bing (https://www.bing.com/new) to suggest an outline structure for this essay.
Description of use of AI:
I used Bing to create a high level structure, which I then refined in my essay to allow me to compare the styles thematically, drawing on my own reading, and information sources from the reading list and Library Search.
Prompt 1: Create an outline essay structure to discuss the key differences between art of the Greek and Hellenistic period.
Output 1 generated:
Introduction:
- Provide some background information on the ancient Greek culture and its artistic achievements.
- Define the terms Greek art and Hellenistic art and explain their time periods, geographical scopes, and political contexts.
- State the main thesis of the essay: that art of the Greek and Hellenistic periods have significant differences in style, concept, and function that reflect their historical and cultural circumstances.
Body paragraphs:
- Each paragraph should focus on one aspect of difference between the two periods and provide evidence and examples to support the claim.
- Possible aspects of difference are: artistic style, artistic genres, depiction of humans, depiction of gods, depiction of nature, depiction of emotions, depiction of movement, use of materials, use of scale, use of perspective, use of symbolism, etc.
- Possible structure for each paragraph: topic sentence, explanation, evidence, analysis, transition.
Conclusion:
- Summarize the main points of the essay and restate the thesis in different words.
- Explain the significance or implications of the differences between the two periods for the understanding of ancient Greek art and culture.
- Provide some suggestions for further research or questions for future study.
Reference:
Microsoft Bing (2023) Bing Chat in response to Elizabeth Daugherty 28 March. Available at: https://www.bing.com/new.
Acknowledgement:
I acknowledge the use of DALL-E 2 (https://openai.com/product/dall-e-2) to create bespoke images to use without modification as call to action components on this webpage.
Description of use of AI:
Prompts used with DALL-E 2:
- a robot hand using a laptop to write an essay hyperrealism style
- computer code on a dark purple background digital art
Reference:
OpenAI DALL-E (2023) DALL-E 2 [Digital Art] 28 March. Available at: https://openai.com/product/dall-e-2.
Referencing AI generated sources
As with all sources of information you use in your work, you will need to critically evaluate any content generated using AI. In addition to acknowledging how you have used AI more broadly in your work, if you think it is appropriate for the task you have been given to use this material directly in your work, perhaps as a verbatim quotation, embedded image or figure, or by summarising and paraphrasing the materials, you must include an in text citation and reference.