Only with your advisory committee's agreement. The Auburn Graduate School's AI Usage Guidelines for Graduate Students (last updated June 2025) say that any AI use by graduate students in research and writing has to be disclosed and needs the committee's approval. The disclosure describes each way you used AI and is part of the official thesis and dissertation format requirements. Programs may add their own guidelines, which must follow Auburn's university-wide guidance on responsible AI use. Ask your advisor and committee before you start.
If your AI statement clearly doesn't cover what you describe elsewhere in your thesis, Esmond points it out.
The Graduate School's page has three parts: permissibility, disclosure and guidance. The first part gives programs a role: “Each graduate program may develop guidelines for the permissible usage of AI in research and/or writing of theses, dissertations, and other works by graduate students.” Program guidelines have to follow Auburn's overarching principles and the normative expectations of the discipline, and Graduate Program Officers are responsible for keeping them in line.
The core rule is in the disclosure part. Usage of AI by graduate students in research and writing must be disclosed, and it needs the approval of the student's advisory committee. The rule names research as well as writing, so it reaches beyond the text of the final document. So ask your advisor first before you use Esmond, or any other AI tool, for your thesis or dissertation, and get the committee's agreement.
Students who publish in external journals follow those publications' rules as well. The page was last updated in June 2025.
A hypothetical example of a commentYour AI disclosure mentions language polishing only, while the methods chapter says the field interviews were transcribed and coded with software. Was any of that coding done by an AI tool, and does the disclosure cover it?
A first comment on one part of your own draft, right away and without an account.
Get a free previewThe Graduate School describes the content: “The disclosure will include the various ways AI tools have been used in conducting the research and/or writing the thesis, or dissertation, or other academic document.” It also fixes its status: “AI use disclosure will be included as part of the official thesis/dissertation format requirements.”
In practice this means the disclosure is something the format review looks for, alongside your committee's approval. Check the current thesis and dissertation format guide for where the statement goes and how it is laid out, since the guidelines page does not give a template.
| Stage | What the guidelines ask | What to have ready |
|---|---|---|
| Proposal or planning | Committee approval for any intended AI use | A short note to your committee listing each planned use |
| Research and data work | Disclosure of AI used in conducting the research | A record of which tool handled which step |
| Drafting and revision | Disclosure of AI used in the writing | The chapters and tasks where a tool was involved |
| Format review | Disclosure as part of format requirements | The final statement, matching what the committee approved |
The program guidelines must follow a university-wide text: Guidance for Responsible Use of Artificial Intelligence, published by the Division of Institutional Compliance & Privacy. It covers Auburn, Auburn University at Montgomery and two state extension and experiment units.
For students it says: “Students using AI tools as part of their academic work must be transparent about their use and must not misrepresent AI-generated content as entirely their own.” Misuse can be a violation of the Academic Honesty Code. For research, it asks researchers to disclose AI used in data analysis, experiments or publications and to separate human and AI contributions. On accuracy it is direct: “Users are always ultimately responsible for ensuring the accuracy of AI output.”
The same text has rules about data. Material classified as operational or confidential under Auburn's Data Classification Policy should never go into AI tools without a legally binding data security agreement, users are told to consult University IT and Compliance before using AI tools, and accepting a tool's clickthrough terms without university approval may create personal liability. Whether your own draft counts as operational or confidential data is not settled by these texts, so ask your advisor before you upload it to Esmond or any tool the university has not approved.
The guidance part of the Graduate School page gives faculty and programs duties too. Programs provide guidance on responsible and ethical AI use and training resources for faculty and students in their field. Graduate faculty work with their mentees to verify that the research and the text are authentic and original. In practice your advisor is the person you ask first and the faculty member who verifies the work with you.
We did not find program guidelines to quote on November 9, 2026. Your program may still have them. To check:
This example is made up. A master's student in forestry asks his committee at the proposal meeting whether he may use a tool for language checks. They agree, and his disclosure says so. Months later he uses a different AI tool to sort 60 interview transcripts into themes for his results chapter, and he does not mention it to the committee. The Graduate School asks for disclosure of the ways AI was used in conducting the research as well as in the writing. His disclosure is accurate for the first use and silent on the second, which also never had the committee's approval.
Esmond evaluates every assignment before you submit. It never writes it.
Esmond is an AI tool that doesn't write for you. If your course doesn't allow any AI tools, don't use Esmond for that work. If you're unsure, ask your instructor or advisor.
Esmond evaluates a draft from within your field and points out factual errors, inconsistencies and blind spots. See how Esmond works and a sample report. At Auburn, any AI use in research and writing needs your advisory committee's approval, so ask your advisor first before you use Esmond for this thesis or dissertation. If the committee agrees, include Esmond in the AI disclosure with what you used it for. Whether your draft falls under Auburn's data rules is not settled by these texts, so ask your advisor about that too before you upload it. See also whether you can use Esmond. Auburn has not reviewed or approved Esmond.
No. The Graduate School requires that AI use in research and writing is disclosed and has the advisory committee's approval. Programs may set further guidelines.
Yes, any AI use in research and writing. The disclosure lists the ways AI tools were used and is part of the official format requirements.
Your advisory committee, within any guidelines your graduate program has set.
Auburn's university guidance says operational or confidential data should never go into AI tools without a legally binding data security agreement. Ask your advisor how that applies to your data.
Read on November 9, 2026.
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