Criminology: Using AI in Research

This page provides information, links, and tips to help guide you if you choose to use Artificial Intelligence tools as part of your research.

Was this guide helpful? Please leave quick, anonymous feedback for this guide by clicking on this link. 

To report a broken link, an error, or a page malfunction please click the Page Feedback link at the bottom of the page.

AI is a great tool for some research tasks. If you are considering using AI as part of your research strategy, please explore this section carefully before you start.

Slide Deck: Using AI Tools in Your Research - a short presentation intended to help you think about AI and when it should or should not be used as part of your work.

Generative AI Guidelines - a general framework on using AI and its impacts on academic integrity from Wilfrid Laurier University.

Citing Use of AI - this Laurier Library webpage gives you a quick breakdown of how and when to cite AI when researching.

What kind of tasks is generative AI good for in academic research?

• brainstorming
• creating or refining a research question
• generating keywords and subject terms for searches
• finding webpages related to particular topics
• spotting patterns or trends online
• summarizing text found on the open internet
• reviewing and editing your work (your own essay or project) for content and readability

Never copy and paste an article, or part of an article or eBook, from one of the library's paid databases into a Large Language Model (LLM) AI. This is a copyright violation which could get you in a lot of trouble and could jeopardize the Library's license agreements with our database providers. The good news is, most databases are working on their own built-in AIs to help you with your research. Check the "Help" button on any database to see if AI tools are available.

Always check with your instructor to ensure use of AI is allowed in any particular assignment. Some assignments are created to help you learn how to do specific tasks on your own, making AI irrelevant for you.

Always check anything generated by AI for errors. AI can create false information and confidently state it as true. Ask the AI to provide citations and check them to ensure they exist.

TIPS (be as specific as possible when asking a LLM AI to perform a task) *

• give the AI a designation: e.g. "you are a professor of ___________ looking for academic resources about _______________"
• provide context to the AI: e.g. what you want to prove or disprove, the purpose of the research, who will be the audience for the completed work
• assign the AI the question or task: e.g. find journal articles or web pages about _____________ and provide a 3 sentence summary of each, and a citation for each in APA style
• give the AI additional instructions or limitations: e.g. nothing published online before 2017, no newspaper articles, etc.

* based on a presentation at the OLA Super Conference 2024 by Avery Swartz, CampTech.ca