Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Medical Education
Date Submitted: Oct 3, 2023
Open Peer Review Period: Oct 3, 2023 - Nov 28, 2023
Date Accepted: May 1, 2024
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
The ability of Chat-GPT in paraphrasing texts and reducing plagiarism
ABSTRACT
Background:
The introduction of Chat-GPT by OpenAI has garnered significant attention.
Objective:
Due to the increasing popularity of ChatGPT in medical research, several studies are needed to identify its pros and cons. In this study, we aim to assess ChatGPT's real ability to paraphrase and reduce plagiarism by imputing different texts and prompts and assessing the plagiarism rate of the rephrased texts provided.
Methods:
Three texts of varying lengths were presented to Chat-GPT. Chat-GPT was then instructed to paraphrase the provided text using five different prompts. In the subsequent stage of the study, the text was divided into separate paragraphs, and Chat-GPT was requested to paraphrase each paragraph individually. Lastly, in the third stage, Chat-GPT was asked to paraphrase the texts it had previously generated.
Results:
The average plagiarism rate in the texts generated by Chat-GPT was 45%. Chat-GPT exhibited a substantial reduction in text plagiarism for the provided texts (MD= -0.51, 95%CI: -0.54, -0.48, P<0.001). Furthermore, when comparing the second attempt with the initial attempt, a significant decrease in plagiarism rate was observed (MD= -0.06, 95%CI: -0.08, -0.03, P<0.001). The number of paragraphs in the texts demonstrated a noteworthy association with the percentage of plagiarism, with texts consisting of a single paragraph exhibiting the lowest plagiarism rate (P <0.001).
Conclusions:
While Chat-GPT has shown to significantly reduce plagiarism in texts, it is important to note that the resulting plagiarism rates of the provided texts may still be considered high, which may not meet the acceptance criteria of most scientific journals. Therefore, medical writers and professionals should carefully consider this issue when utilizing Chat-GPT for paraphrasing their texts. There are a couple of strategies authors can employ to improve the paraphrasing efficacy of Chat-GPT. Presenting the texts in a single-paragraph format and repeating the requesting procedure with Chat-GPT. By considering these strategies and being mindful of the potential limitations, authors can strive to improve the paraphrasing efficacy of Chat-GPT and address the challenge of high plagiarism rates associated with its outputs.
Citation
Request queued. Please wait while the file is being generated. It may take some time.
Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.