Giving Credit Where Credit is Due: An Artificial Intelligence Contribution Statement for Research Methods Writing Assignments

Abstract

Citation practices are fundamental to teaching scholarly writing. With the emergence of generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies, students need a structured way to cite when and how these technologies are used. This paper introduces an instructor resource, an AI Contribution Statement, which provides students with an ethical and explicit framework for reporting on AI use during idea generation and writing in research methods. Students were guided to create an AI Contribution Statement that reports when an AI technology was used for a research paper, what prompts were given and text generated, and how the information was incorporated into a final written product. Sixty-four percent of students reported using AI assistive technologies. Of those, 33.12% reported using it more than twice, suggesting that, when allowed in a course, students’ use is relatively low. Training students in best citation practices regarding ethical and transparent use of AI technologies is important, yet additional research is needed to understand how students are using it and how instructors can leverage this tool to foster equity. An AI Contribution Statement is an important addition to research methods teaching to create equality in technology use and student success.