AI can help you understand unfamiliar language, follow an argument and test your understanding of an academic text. It may be useful when reading journal articles, book chapters or other course material. Start with the original text, check what the tool has actually used, and make your own judgement about what the source says and how it relates to your work.
An AI summary is an aid to reading, not an academic source to cite in place of the article or chapter.
Always follow your assessment brief. It will specify whether you can use Generative AI (GenAI) in your work, and whether this must be acknowledged. Requirements may vary by module or programme. If there is any conflict between this guidance and your assessment brief, the brief takes priority. For details of the University’s official position, see Using AI: Rules and Responsibilities.
Before using AI, ask what you need from the text. Are you trying to understand a concept, follow the author’s argument, examine evidence or decide whether a source is relevant to your assessment?
Read or skim enough of the original to identify what you understand and where you need help. You may only need to examine certain sections closely, depending on your task. A set reading for a seminar may need a different approach from an article you found while researching an assessment.
For strategies that work with or without AI, see Reading and the Library’s guide to Reading journal articles.
If your assessment permits it, AI may help you:
For example, you could ask Copilot Chat to explain a general concept in plain English, then check its explanation against your course materials. You could also describe what you have understood in your own words and ask it to pose questions that might reveal a gap in your understanding.
This may be particularly useful when you encounter specialist language or are reading in a language that is not your first. Listening to a text through a screen reader or text-to-speech feature helps you access the source’s wording. An AI-generated summary or explanation provides an interpretation that may omit important qualifications or change the meaning. A single service may offer both, so check which feature you are using. Use generated explanations to support your reading and compare them with the relevant parts of the original.
Some platforms offer AI help alongside a text, without asking you to upload your own copy. JSTOR’s AI research tool is available on some articles; it can outline key points or answer questions about the text. Semantic Scholar offers short AI summaries and, for some papers, features that let you ask questions or explore the text as you read. See the Library’s Semantic Scholar guide for more about that service.
An AI answer may draw on a title, abstract, selected passages or full text. A paper appearing in a tool’s results does not necessarily mean the tool has read the whole paper. Before relying on an explanation or summary, ask:
If you ask a general AI assistant about an article it cannot access, its answer may sound specific without being based on that article. An abstract can help you decide whether to read further, but it may leave out details that matter to your task.
An AI summary is an interpretation of a text. It may simplify an argument too far, miss a qualification, confuse what an author found with what they suggest, or overlook a table, figure or opposing view.
Return to the parts of the original that matter for your purpose. Depending on the text and your subject, consider:
Make notes that distinguish the author’s ideas, the AI’s suggestions and your own interpretation. If you cannot tell whether an important explanation is right, use the original text and your course materials, or ask your tutor. A second AI answer is not independent confirmation.
For a fuller method of checking generated explanations and summaries, see Evaluating AI outputs.
Using an AI feature within a platform that holds a text is different from uploading your own copy of that text to another service.
Do not upload or paste journal articles, book chapters, scanned readings or other licensed course materials into an AI service unless you are sure you have permission. A short extract is not automatically permitted simply because it is short. You can ask general questions without supplying the text, or work from notes you have written in your own words.
Do not enter personal, confidential or sensitive information, unpublished research, or substantial parts of your assessment into an AI tool. These precautions apply even when you use Abertay’s supported general AI assistant, Microsoft Copilot Chat.
See the Copyright Guide for Students and AI and data privacy for fuller guidance.
If you use an academic text as evidence in an assessment, read the relevant original material and cite that source. Do not treat an AI summary as evidence that the author made a particular claim. If your assessment specifically asks you to analyse an AI output, follow its instructions for that task.
Follow your assessment brief on acknowledging AI assistance. You may need to acknowledge its contribution even when none of its wording appears in your submitted work. See Acknowledging AI use for guidance.
Last modified by Student and Academic Services