Starting your research
GenAI tools can be used in the early stages of research to brainstorm ideas and to identify possible suitable research design. They can also be used to support project management.
It is incumbent upon all Deakin researchers to take reasonable steps to ensure the use of generative AI does not breach any legal or ethical obligations and to exercise the utmost professionalism and academic standards. Remember that when using genAI tools:
- You are ethically and legally responsible for your use of genAI.
- You must adhere to Deakin’s Research Conduct Policy and the Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research.
- You must be transparent and accountable, and clearly acknowledge how genAI has been used.
- Generative AI is not a peer review tool and should not be used to assess peer review material.
- You need to familiarise yourself with scholarly publishers’ policies.
- You should also review for inaccuracy and bias in genAI outputs, making a conscious effort to identify, critically interrogate, and mitigate these biases.
Responsible use
- Do take legal and ethical responsibility for your use of genAI in your research.
- Do comply with conduct policies including Deakin’s Research Conduct Policy and the Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research.
- Consider using genAI to address writer’s block by prompting thinking.
- Do treat generated research ideas with caution and cross-check for originality via literature searches.
- Consider using genAI to generate project plans and timelines.
- Consider using genAI as a virtual mentor.
- Do be transparent and accountable. Declare which tools you have used and how you have used them.
- Do have awareness of the risk of oversharing your research question before you begin your project. Open genAI tools often harvest prompts and uploaded material for training and refinement of the tool. There is a risk that your research question may be shared with your competitors!
- Do check terms of use of genAI tools including privacy policies.
- Do review genAI output for inaccuracy and bias.
- Do use the right tool for the right job.
Cautions
- Don’t breach confidentiality through information in your prompts or through sharing data with public genAI tools. Without permissions, third party copyrighted materials should not be uploaded or used in prompts when using genAI tools. Without ethics approval, other confidential or sensitive data or material, human research data, private or personal information should not be uploaded or used in prompts. Sharing data in genAI tools may constitute a breach of IP, privacy legislation and ethics. See more detail in the Deakin guidelines.
- Don’t share grant applications with any genAI tool. It will breach most grant application guidelines.
- Don’t upload copyrighted or licenced material into genAI tools.
- Don’t create or manipulate images with any genAI tool unless this is part of research methodology and fully disclosed.
- Don’t represent material created by genAI as your own work.
Case examples
Click on the plus icons below to explore exemplar and cautionary hypothetical scenarios for beginning research.