The following Q&As address some novel questions about artificial intelligence and publishing your work on the OpenAIR platform. Any inquiries that are not addressed below should be directed to Agnes Gambill at gambillab@appstate.edu.
(Q) Will AI be able to access OpenAIR content?
(A) OpenAIR is an open-access institutional repository. As a result, work submitted to OpenAIR, with some exceptions, will be available to the public. At this time, it is possible that AI bots may access and scrape work published and made accessible on OpenAIR. OpenAIR staff and figshare are working collaboratively to determine technical solutions, if any. For this reason, OpenAIR users should not submit any confidential or sensitive information, personally identifiable information (PII), and work with proprietary rights into the repository. Please revisit the FAQs section for updates on progress towards technical, policy, and legal measures taken to protect repository content from AI use.
(Q) Can Appalachian State University employees submit content that has been created by AI?
(A) No. AI-generated work should not be submitted into OpenAIR. If the author has used AI to assist in the brainstorming process or the improvement of language, then authors should make full disclosures in their works and to the OpenAIR staff. OpenAIR staff have the discretion to admit AI-assisted work on a case-by-case basis. Please contact OpenAIR staff for further guidance.
(Q) Can AI be listed as a co-author for works submitted to OpenAIR?
(A) No. AI cannot be an author or co-author and, therefore, AI should not be listed as an author or co-author when submitting works to OpenAIR.
(Q) Do I need to disclose AI use?
(A) Yes. If you used AI to generate or assist in the development of your submission to OpenAIR, then disclosure is mandatory.
(Q) Can I input content that I find on OpenAIR into AI platforms?
(A) No, unless you have permission from the copyright holder. Content that is hosted on OpenAIR may be protected by intellectual property rights, contract rights, licensing rights, publishing agreements, and other legal agreements that may not be readily apparent to the public and OpenAIR users. Inputting content into AI platforms also risks the loss of attribution and citation for authors, which is not only detrimental to the integrity of the scholarly record, but also unfair to authors who rely on attribution credit for promotion and tenure, and may result in AI platforms plagiarizing another's work. You should always contact the copyright holder before inputting any OpenAIR content into AI platforms.
(Q) What does "AI-assisted" content mean?
(A) While this definition is still evolving, in the scholarly publishing context, "AI-assisted" means any work where the author uses AI to help with the brainstorming process with identifying research questions and improving the writing of the work. AI-assisted does not mean using AI to make significant revisions to your work, using AI to write large segments of your work, and using AI to develop new analysis and arguments.
