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Academic Integrity - Referencing, Citation & Avoiding Plagiarism: MHRA Style Guide

This guide explains what referencing and citation is and how to use the APA, Chicago, Harvard, MLA and Vancouver Styles. It includes links to each style guide.

MHRA Style

Languages and Cultures from the School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics use the MHRA Style. The guide is freely available online or as a PDF download, linked below.

Introduction to Citing Generative AI

This citation and referencing advice should be used only when your module coordinator or School allows the use of AI tools in the creation of academic assignments. If you have used an AI tool in the creation of an assignment, you must acknowledge this use and cite and reference the tool appropriately to ensure you are adhering to UCD's Academic Integrity Policy (see the Student Conduct website for this policy). 

Advice about citing and referencing AI tools is constantly evolving, and this guide updated on 24 January 2025, will continue to be updated as further information becomes available.

For the purposes of this guidance, generative AI is defined as a tool that “can analyze or summarize content from a huge set of information, including web pages, books and other writing available on the internet, and use that data to create original new content” (Weed, 2023).

Generative AI often provides citations and sources that do not exist, or are inaccurate. All such references must be checked by the user to ensure the legitimacy of the references/citations provided by AI tools.

 

References:
Weed, Julie. “Can ChatGPT Plan Your Vacation?” The New York Times, 16 Mar. 2023, www.nytimes.com/2023/03/16/travel/chatgpt-artificial-intelligence-travel-vacation.html.

 

Guidance:


As of the creation of this guide the editors of the MHRA citation style have not yet published guidance for citing generative AI. In the absence of guidance from the editors, UCD Library recommends treating the use of generative AI in the same manner as for citing private communications
 

Example for Citing Generative AI with MHRA Style


Private communications are included as in-text citations with numbered footnotes. Inclusion in the list of references is not required.

Example:

In an era when literacy was limited, complex illuminations played a pedagogical role. They helped illiterate or semi-literate individuals understand and remember the contents of the manuscript. Images and visual cues were used to convey the narratives and teachings within the text, making it accessible to a broader audience.1

1. OpenAI, ChatGPt's response to John Doe, 19 October 2023.