A Note on AI
In the Department of English handbook, the term “AI” refers primarily to generative artificial intelligence technologies capable of producing, revising, summarizing or evaluating text in response to user prompts. The handbook does not address image-based or multimodal AI tools. Because AI tools are rapidly evolving, it avoids tying “AI use” to any single interface or platform. Instead, the term refers broadly to tools that can meaningfully shape the development, analysis, or presentation of written research.
Overview of AI Use by Graduate Students
The Department of English expects that graduate students abide by ASU's academic integrity policy, which requires academic honesty on all examinations, papers, applied projects, theses, dissertations, and other academic transactions. The use of "academic deceit," which is defined as "any deceptive or fraudulent act that creates or attempts to create an advantage or disadvantage for any member of the academic community" will be met with appropriate sanctions (see Part E. Sanctions and Appeals). The Graduate College's Policy Manual furthermore states: "violations of academic integrity include, but are not limited to cheating, fabrication of data, tampering, plagiarism, or aiding and/or facilitating such activities."
Because expectations regarding acceptable uses of AI vary greatly in the Department of English and, more broadly, at ASU and beyond, the individual supervisory faculty and graduate students need to discern for themselves at the outset of a major project which uses are acceptable within the limits of ASU and departmental policy.
AI Guidelines
1. Any use of AI that violates academic integrity is unacceptable and may result in failure and/or dismissal.
2. Acceptable use of AI is limited by the academic integrity policy and ASU policies on uses of AI. Per ASU policy, the following uses of AI are deemed unacceptable:
- Using AI to generate substantive written content, claims, and/or interpretations that are incorporated into one’s work without proper disclosure and attribution. [Please note that some supervisory faculty and committees think that any use of AI, disclosed or not, is unacceptable.]
- Citing, incorporating, or relying upon fabricated sources, citations, or information generated by AI. [This does not mean that real sources, citations, or information generated or found by AI are acceptable.]
3. Before uploading data into an AI tool, be sure to consult ASU policies regarding research compliance for human subjects, data privacy protocols, and copyright. For further information, please consult the following resources:
4. Starting in Fall 2026, graduate students must submit the AI Agreement Form (more below) before beginning work on an applied project, thesis, portfolio (written comprehensive exam), oral comprehensive exam, dissertation prospectus or dissertation. (For directions, see the form itself). Note: To students who have already begun work, please submit the form as soon as possible in Fall 2026.
5. If the supervisory faculty and graduate student agree that there are acceptable uses of AI on a specific project, substantive uses must be documented. On the AI Agreement Form, there are spaces for recording which documentation protocols have been selected.
- Consult the ASU library guide on proper citation protocols for generative AI: Generative AI Citation - ASU Library Guides.
- Visit the department's Evolving Document on AI Tools (coming soon) to learn more about what they have to offer.
- Have frank discussions about expectations in your academic field and, when relevant, related professions. At the moment (spring 2026), in some fields of academic study most people assume (rightly or wrongly) that any use of AI is an indication of academic dishonesty. In other fields most people assume that rigorous work and advancement require thoughtful assessment and use of AI tools. Thorough discussions about AI between students, supervisory faculty, and committee members are strongly encouraged.
- To faculty: consider adopting one or more procedures for ensuring originality of research and writing. Here are a few potentially helpful things that many faculty already do:
- meet with students well before submission deadlines to discuss their outlines, early drafts, and/or research notes;
- require documentation of revisions (for example, with "track changes" in Word);
- have substantive (versus "gotcha!") discussions about the content of submissions.
- To students: show your work. Keep a folder with your notes, outlines, and drafts. Use "track changes" or a similar tool to document your revisions. If you want or need to change the subject, argument, or methodology, please have substantive discussions with your supervisory faculty about these changes before submitting work.
The AI Agreement Form [link forthcoming] should be dated, initialed by all parties, and submitted before a graduate student undertakes a major project, such as a thesis, applied project, portfolio paper(s) (written comprehensive exam), oral comprehensive exam, dissertation prospectus or dissertation. The form serves as a starting point for discussion and a record of agreement between the faculty member and graduate student. It is not a contract. Because new AI technologies emerge frequently and thinking about acceptable uses of AI continues to change, the AI Agreement Form can be revised and resubmitted.
Ideally, the AI Agreement Form will promote education about and sensitive assessment of AI tools and prevent unwelcome surprises: for example, students being accused of academic dishonesty when they believe that they have proceeded with academic integrity or committee members refusing to assess a student's work.
Users of the form are prompted to consider a variety of uses for AI:
- as a preliminary step (brainstorming, outlining, refining an argument, for example)
- to organize, analyze and/or evaluate secondary sources
- to organize, analyze, evaluate and/or visualize data
- for purposes of translation, paraphrasing or language refinement
- to generate text for use in one’s work
- to generate and/or refine code
- in other ways (for example, AI agents or other emerging features)
Violations of the ASU academic integrity policy and failure to meet standard of academic quality are common reasons for failure or dismissal. Supervisory faculty and committees may fail a project for not meeting academic standards. If supervisory faculty and committees believe that they have found evidence of academic deceit, they should contact the Director of Graduate Studies and the Department Chair for further guidance. Non-compliance with the AI Agreement Form could create problems that considerably delay a student's progress, but it alone cannot be grounds for failure or dismissal.