Policy on Artificial Intelligence Use in Dissertations, Theses, and Capstones
The Department of Economics permits the limited, responsible use of artificial intelligence in the preparation of dissertations, theses, and capstones. We recognize the growing use of AI tools in scholarly research and professional practice. AI can be valuable for particular research and writing tasks, and familiarity with such tools is increasingly becoming part of the toolkit expected of professional economists.
At the same time, the use of AI should not diminish the standards of scholarship, originality, and transparency that apply to graduate research. Students are solely responsible for the accuracy, integrity, and authenticity of their work. A dissertation, thesis, or capstone must represent an original contribution to knowledge, and the role of AI cannot rise to the level of a coauthor. Students are expected to have a thorough understanding of all material included in their work and must be able to explain and defend its arguments, methods, and analysis.
Below we describe the department’s general expectations regarding the use of AI.
The text of a dissertation, thesis, or capstone must represent a student’s own arguments, analysis, and interpretation. Students are responsible for drafting the text of their work. AI tools may be used to edit text for clarity and readability, but they must not be used to generate substantial portions of text.
Students are responsible for performing the central tasks of research, such as identifying research questions, investigating available data sources, developing research designs, and analyzing theoretical or empirical models. Although AI may be consulted in the course of this work, students must critically evaluate any output it produces. AI may not serve as a substitute for a student’s own judgment and independent reasoning, and it should not be used to generate arguments, analysis, or interpretations for inclusion in the final work. It may, however, be used in a more limited way to critique a student’s own ideas or to suggest possible extensions, applications, or robustness checks.
Students may use AI to suggest papers on a topic of interest or to provide preliminary descriptions of literature. However, students must always consult the original source and read the work themselves in order to develop their own understanding of it. They must also carefully review any citations and references generated by AI, since AI may produce inaccurate or fabricated citations. The inclusion of fabricated references is a violation of academic integrity and seriously undermines the credibility of a student’s scholarship. Any discussion of the literature in a dissertation, thesis, or capstone must be based on the student’s own reading and understanding.
AI may be used to assist with tasks such as generating computer code or helping compile datasets. Students must carefully review all code, data work, and output generated with AI and are fully responsible for its accuracy. When research involves human subjects or proprietary data, students must preserve confidentiality and privacy and should not upload restricted material to AI platforms unless such use is clearly permitted.
Dissertations, theses, and capstones must also meet professional standards of replicability. Before a PhD defense or completion of a thesis or capstone project, students are required to make data and code available to their advisor and any committee members. Sufficient documentation must be provided to enable replication of all tables and figures containing empirical results. Students should upload these materials as supplementary files when submitting their dissertation or thesis to the Graduate School. Students can request an exception if their work relies on confidential, proprietary, or restricted-use data.
These are general departmental rules. A dissertation, thesis, or capstone advisor, in consultation with any committee members, may impose further requirements. Students should discuss their use of AI with their advisor in order to understand the specific expectations that apply to their work.
Students who wish to use AI for teaching assistant duties must consult the course instructor for guidance. In general, uploading student work to an AI platform for assistance with grading, feedback, or evaluation is not acceptable, since it may violate student privacy.
Any student who uses AI tools in the preparation of a dissertation, thesis, or capstone must include a disclosure statement describing how those tools were used in the research and writing process. The statement should identify the AI tool used and the ways in which it was used. It should also confirm that the student carefully reviewed any output and takes full responsibility for the accuracy and integrity of the work.
The following example illustrates the basic format expected of a disclosure statement:
In preparing this dissertation, thesis, or capstone, I used [name(s) of AI tool(s)] for limited purposes during the research and writing process. Specifically, this tool was used to [describe the uses, such as editing text to improve its clarity and readability, suggesting relevant literature for further review, identifying robustness checks for empirical results, and generating computer code for statistical analysis]. I carefully reviewed any output produced by the tool and take full responsibility for the accuracy, integrity, and originality of this work
Violations of this policy may be referred to the Office of Academic Integrity. Possible sanctions for improper use of AI tools include academic probation and dismissal from the academic program. At the request of a faculty member, the Department Chair, Director of Graduate Studies, or Director of Undergraduate Studies may appoint an ad hoc committee to gather evidence regarding a student’s use of AI, determine whether this policy has been violated, and report cases of academic misconduct to the Office of Academic Integrity.