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AI research

How to use AI tools responsibly in Research.

Writing publications

Research findings are synthesised into theses, manuscripts or reports to communicates the project outcomes to the research community, the professional community and to the general public. 

Researchers should comply with policies and guidelines from funding bodies, from publishers and the University.  

Responsible use

Cautions

  • Don’t use GenAI tools to synthesise reports or manuscripts.
  • Don’t add GenAI tools as authors. Authors must be able to take responsibility for the manuscript, and GenAI cannot do this.

Case examples

Exemplar - Case example 1

Charlie is a PhD student who is writing a manuscript to submit to a major journal in his field. Writing is not one of his many strengths, but he has found that using a GenAI tool added into his word processing software helps him with copyediting. He uses it to check for and correct spelling errors, and he declares his use of this tool in his manuscript. He also checks the guidelines of the Institute for Professional Editors to ensure that his use of the tool is still in alignment.

Charlie is using AI tools appropriately.

Cautionary - Case example 2

Jurgen is writing up his research findings for submission to a high impact journal. He is concerned that he has not communicated his ideas clearly, so he uploads his draft into a GenAI tool and uses prompts to direct the tool to rewrite his introduction in a scholarly style. Jurgen fails to disclose his use of GenAI in the preparation of his manuscript.

Jurgen has not used AI tools appropriately as he has breached the journal’s guidelines by uploading his draft into GenAI, risking the confidentiality of the manuscript. He has also failed to declare his use of GenAI.