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Vancouver Referencing

ChatGPT & other generative AI tools

Confirm with your course convenor or check your course profile before using Artificial Intelligence (AI) in your assessment. Some assessment pieces do not permit the use of AI tools, while others may allow AI with some limitations.

Any permitted use of AI for assessment must be acknowledged appropriately. Your course coordinator will provide guidance on how to reference the use of AI tools. Some possible examples include:  

  • citing or referencing in the text or list of references
  • inclusion in your methodology
  • an appendix including a full transcript of any prompts and AI-generated responses.

AI models sometimes produce incorrect, biased or outdated information. Verify the accuracy of AI-generated content using reliable sources before including it in your work.

Additionally, there may be legal or ethical issues to consider when using AI. Works created by non-humans are not eligible for copyright protection under Australian law. If you intend to publish work incorporating AI-generated content, check the publisher guidelines about what is allowed.

When interacting with AI models, you should be cautious about supplying sensitive information, including personal, confidential or propriety information or data.

Find more about ChatGPT and generative artificial intelligence tools (GAITs) at AI Tools at Macquarie University.

Where an assignment requires ChatGPT to be cited, you must reference all the content from Generative AI tools that you include. Failure to reference externally sourced, non-original work can result in academic misconduct.

References should provide clear and accurate information for each source and should identify where they have been used in your work.

In Vancouver referencing style, the text of your document must include:

  • Type of communication
  • Communicator
  • Date in this format (Day Month Year)

In an online chat with OpenAI's ChatGPT AI language model (7 February 2023) ...

Citing medicine: the NLM style guide for authors, editors, and publishers (2nd edition) and AMA manual of style provide detailed guidance in formatting bibliographic citations in Vancouver referencing style.