Artificial Intelligence:
Acceptable Uses

Responsible Use of AI in Research

In 2024, the University of Washington Graduate School explored the question, "How can I use [GenAI] in writing a dissertation?" Their guidance highlights several appropriate uses during the research and writing process.

Topic Selection: helpful for brainstorming ideas and identifying potential topics.
Literature Review: can assist with finding sources (with the caveat that paywalls may limit access), summarizing articles and studies, and organizing the literature.
Research Design: useful for reviewing different methodologies or data collection techniques.
Writing: can create an outline or refining your original work without adding any new or unoriginal content.
Data Analysis: can explain statistical methods and recommend ways to visualize your data.
Citations and References: can assist with formatting citations according to APA and organize your bibliography.
Final Review: can help you incorporate feedback from professors or peers, and polish final work.

Best Practices for AI Use

Be intentional and maintain oversight
Be transparent with your use
Use only approved tools
Protect data privacy and watch for bias
Evaluate all resources for accuracy and relevance
Maintain academic integrity
Use AI responsibly

Prompt Engineering

GenAI's outputs depend on the quality of the prompts provided. In other words, a general prompt will generate a general answer. To achieve the best results from GenAI, it is important to understand the way different prompts can be structured for different purposes. There are three primary prompt structures:

Direct Instructions - these instructions are specific and tell AI what to do. Direct Instructions are most ideal for straightforward tasks with a clear outcome.
Example: Write a recipe for banana bread.
Open-ended Instructions - these instructions encourage AI to be creative, explore broad topics, and interpret responses. These instructions are helpful for brainstorming, storytelling, or discussions.
Example: Describe tourism in Spain.
Task-specific instructions - these instructions are intended for precise tasks like translations, calculations, or summaries.
Example: Convert 200m to feet.

When creating a prompt for GenAI it is helpful to follow some simple strategies.

Tell the GenAI who you are (graduate-level student writing a dissertation). This tells AI how to approach the answer, avoiding generalities.
Set the situation and explain the background.
Be specific on the task with clear detailed instructions. What do you want AI to do? Focus on keywords and be as direct as possible with your request. Organize prompts into logical steps or break things down into smaller prompts if the prompt is complex.
Define the format of your expected response. How do you want the information?
Set boundaries or rules. If you do not want AI to talk about specific subjects, add unoriginal content, or add opinion to an answer.
Provide examples if you have ideal responses available. Upload images, documents, reports, etc.
Rephrase or restructure your prompt if the response did not adequately answer your question.

Additional Sources

Publishing with AI

With the emergence of GenAI, academic publishers have developed their own policies related to writing and research. If you intend to use AI, consult all relevant publishers to ensure you do not disqualify your work and to ensure you adequately disclose and any all uses. Montclair State University identified the publishing policies of several respected publishers, though it is imperative to verify the policy of a specific publisher when submitting your work.

Publisher policies generally:

Heavily restrict or limit AI authorship - AI should not be used as an authoring tool or significantly contribute to written research
Stress the importance of disclosure - all uses should be transparently recorded and shared
Encourage authors to review all work generated or altered by AI to verify accuracy

Academia values human originality and authorship.