The Emerging Citation Challenge for AI-Generated Content
The rapid adoption of AI writing tools — ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, Gemini, and others — has created a new and not yet fully settled citation challenge for Malaysian postgraduate researchers. APA 7th edition, last formally updated in 2020, did not anticipate these tools, but the APA Publication Manual update guidance and supplementary blog posts from the APA have addressed how to cite AI-generated content. Malaysian postgraduate students need to understand these emerging conventions — and also need to be clear on their institution’s policies regarding the use of AI tools in thesis writing.
The APA Guidance on Citing AI Tools
APA’s current guidance treats AI-generated text as non-retrievable personal communication — because the specific conversation that produced the text cannot be independently accessed by readers — but also acknowledges that AI tools are different from personal communications in important ways. The APA recommends treating the AI tool similarly to software, with the tool name as the author and a description of the query context included in the text.
The in-text citation format that has emerged in APA guidance is: (OpenAI, 2024) or (Anthropic, 2024) for the developing company, with a reference list entry: OpenAI. (2024). ChatGPT (GPT-4o) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com. Because AI outputs are not stably retrievable — the same prompt may produce different outputs at different times — include a note in the text describing the query or prompt that generated the content you are citing. This contextual description is what approximates the transparency that traditional citations provide through direct retrievability.
Malaysian University Policies on AI Use in Theses
Before using any AI tool in your thesis writing and citing it, verify your institution’s current policy on AI tool use in academic work. Malaysian public universities are actively developing and revising their policies on AI use in postgraduate research and thesis writing. Some institutions permit AI tools for editing and grammar checking but not for generating substantive content. Others require disclosure of any AI tool use. Some prohibit AI-generated content in thesis submissions entirely.
The citation question is secondary to the integrity question: using an AI tool to generate text that you present as your own original scholarly work without disclosure is an academic integrity violation regardless of whether the tool is cited. Understand your institution’s policy, disclose AI tool use in accordance with that policy, and cite AI-generated content using the emerging APA conventions when disclosure and citation are both appropriate and required. The field is evolving rapidly — check APA’s website for the most current guidance before your submission.
