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Attribution is a less formal approach for crediting ideas and material from others. In scholarly writing and presentation, it may take the form of a footnote or endnote, a section at the end of the paper where thanks and attribution are offered, or through the less formal citation processes around personal communications which are only communicated within the body of the text. Attribution forms a critical complement to citation as it is both a less structured and more flexible way to credit ideas, concepts, and contributions of others. Attribution also has other benefits as it can include additional information that may not be found in the citation itself, including licensing information, multiple hyperlinks, and a detailed description of how and why the material is being attributed in the work. In the context of generative artificial intelligence systems, attribution offers a path to transparent disclosure of the varied ways such tools may have been used in academic or research work.
The Artificial Intelligence Disclosure (AID) Framework (2024) was developed by Kari D. Weaver, Learning, Teaching, and Instructional Design Librarian, to enhance transparency and consistency in attribution practices for generative artificial intelligence. Inquiries may be directed to kdweaver@uwaterloo.ca.
The purpose of the Artificial Intelligence Disclosure (AID) Framework is to provide brief, targeted disclosure about the use of AI systems based on the range of activities used for research writing. The AID Statement is appended to the end of the paper (similar to an Acknowledgements section), detailing the AI tools used and the manner in which they were used, based on the possible points of engagement through the writing process, as captured in the headings below. The formatting is intended to be both human- and machine-readable, and uses the following structure:
AID Statement: Artificial Intelligence Tool: [description of tools used]; [Heading]: [description of AI use in that stage of the work];…
Each heading: statement pair will end in a semi-colon, except for the last statement, which will end in a period. Any other symbols can be used in “statement” portion of the heading: statement pair except for colons and semi-colons.
If AI tools were used at any point in the writing, research, or project management processes, the AID Statement will always begin with the “artificial intelligence tool” section. It will then be followed by any heading: statement pairs necessary to disclose AI tool use. Heading: statement pairs will only be included if AI was used in that portion of the writing process. If a heading is not needed, it should not be included. If AI was not used at any point in the writing, research, or project management processes, authors would not include an AID Statement in their work.
The potential headings for the AID Statement, and their definitions, are the following:
[1] As generative artificial intelligence tools may not be an author of scholarly work, overlap in categorization between CRediT and AID Framework have been edited as necessary to reflect this distinction.
Many thanks to the members of the Associate Vice-President Academic's Standing Committee on New Technologies, Pedagogies, and Academic Integrity at the University of Waterloo for their encouragement and support of this work. Particular thanks for the following colleagues who provided thoughtful, constructive, and positive feedback throughout the development process:
Weaver, K. D. (2024). The artificial intelligence disclosure (AID) framework: An introduction. C&RL News, 85(10), 407-411. https://crln.acrl.org/index.php/crlnews/article/view/26548
The article is also cross listed in the arXiv repository.
The Artificial Intelligence Disclosure (AID) Framework and additional resources available on this guide are shared by Kari D. Weaver under a CC-BY-SA 4.0 license. This license allows the materials to be shared and adapted, including for commercial purposes, with attribution to the original author.
Dr. Weaver may be credited for the AID Framework by providing a direct citation to the C&RL News Article.
For adaptations, the following statement is additionally recommended:
This resource is an adaptation of the Artificial Intelligence Disclosure (AID) Framework (2024) by Dr. Kari D. Weaver, University of Waterloo Libraries. It has been produced as allowed under its assigned CC-BY-SA 4.0 license.
Though not required, there is great interest in seeing how the AID Framework grows and changes over time. You are encouraged to share adaptations directly with Dr. Weaver via email at kdweaver@uwaterloo.ca.