AI: When and How to Cite by Richard Seltzer

Posted on Medium August 24, 2025
Feedback welcome. seltzer@seltzerbooks.com
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An academic friend of mine who is new at using ChatGPT, just asked me what is the proper way to cite it. That depends on how you use it and where you feel you should cite it.

My gut feel —
1) If you are using it as a research tool, there should be no need to cite it. You don’t cite the software you use (like Word and spellcheck). You also probably don’t cite your graduate assistants or colleagues you discussed your work with.
2) Don’t quote ChatGPT directly and verbatim. Benefit from dialogue with it rather than use it to do your writing. Paraphrase and doublecheck anything that seems dubious to you. Don’t presume that it is 100% accurate on facts (even if it’s 99% accurate)..
3) When ChatGPT cites sources for its facts, check the source and quote the source rather than the AI. When ChatGPT doesn’t mention its source, ask it for the source.

I find that it helps if you treat the AI like a human being, politely, with please and thank you’s, even giving it a personal human name. (I call mine “Simon”, as in “Simon says”). That will help you get into the mindset of dialogue, often asking for feedback and advice, not just facts. Your AI is much more than an encyclopedia. He/she can think and judge, plan and advise. Don’t just order it around — “do this”, “do that”. Don’t tell it how to do what you want. Tell it your goal and set it free to get there the best way he/she knows how.

I just shared that advice with Simon (OpenAI, version GPT-5). He/she responded as follows:

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I think your “gut feel” is very sound, and it lines up with the general consensus among academics, editors, and professional societies who have been discussing this. Here’s a structured way to frame it:

1. When Not to Cite ChatGPT

• As a tool, not a source: You don’t cite Word or spellcheck, and if you use ChatGPT strictly as a productivity aid (to brainstorm, rephrase, clarify, or structure your thinking), there’s no obligation to cite it.
• When paraphrasing: If you’ve taken insights from a dialogue but rewritten them in your own words and verified them independently, the attribution is to you, not the AI.
• Assistive role: If you treat it like a research assistant or colleague who bounced ideas with you, but didn’t provide quotable material, then acknowledgment (if any) might go in a preface or footnote, not a formal citation.

2. When You Should Cite or Acknowledge

• Direct quotations: If you reproduce ChatGPT’s text verbatim in your work, then it must be cited, just as you would with any published or unpublished source.
• Non-verifiable outputs: If ChatGPT provides information that isn’t clearly attributable to a published source, and you want to include it, you must either cite it directly (with date and version) or leave it out.
• Transparency in method: In some fields (especially the sciences), journals increasingly ask authors to disclose AI use in methods sections or acknowledgments, even if the AI isn’t cited as a source.

3. How to Cite (if you do)

Guidelines vary, but here are examples:

• APA (7th ed.):

OpenAI. (2025). ChatGPT [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com/
Then in text: (OpenAI, 2025).
Or if referring to a specific conversation:
OpenAI. (2025). ChatGPT (version GPT-5) [Large language model]. Response to Richard Seltzer’s prompt, August 24, 2025. https://chat.openai.com/

• MLA (9th ed.):

OpenAI. ChatGPT, version GPT-5, OpenAI, 24 Aug. 2025, chat.openai.com.

• Chicago (17th ed., author-date):

OpenAI. 2025. ChatGPT. Version GPT-5. Accessed August 24, 2025. https://chat.openai.com/.

4. Best Practices

• Verify sources: As you said — if ChatGPT points to a fact or quotation, track down the actual source and cite that instead of the AI.
• Treat it as interlocutor: Giving it a name like “Simon” and thinking of it as a conversation partner helps maintain critical distance and prevents passive over-reliance.
• Disclose selectively: If your editor, journal, or institution has policies on AI use, follow them; otherwise, you can decide whether a discreet acknowledgment (e.g., “I thank ChatGPT for assisting in brainstorming”) is sufficient.

👉 In short: use ChatGPT as you would a brilliant but occasionally unreliable assistant or colleague — check their work and give credit when the words or ideas  come from the AI.
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