CLARA (Clear Labels for AI Reporting in Academia): A Labeling System for Disclosing AI Use in Higher Education. Technical Specification
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: New to CLARA? Start with the two-page Usage Guide (CLARA Usage Guide.pdf) to choose and place your label in minutes. CLARA (Clear Labels for AI Reporting in Academia) is a visual, standardized labeling system for disclosing the use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools in academic work in higher education. Drawing on nutrition labeling, voluntary seals such as the Non-GMO Project mark, and the modular iconography of Creative Commons licenses, CLARA replaces lengthy written statements with a short label that can be read at a glance. Each label opens with an AI segment, shows in which of four functional categories AI was used (Ref: research and information management; Struct: content creation and structure; Edit: editing, grammar and style; AV: audiovisual and technical elements), and always closes with BY-Human, which affirms the author’s intellectual control and responsibility for the work. The four categories yield 16 possible combinations. CLARA does not rate the quality of a work or penalize AI use; it records the nature of the assistance received. This record contains version 1.0 of the technical specification, a two-page usage guide, the label catalog, and the English edition of the graphic kit (F3 “Windows” model): all 16 combinations in black-and-white and negative versions, as SVG and PNG files. License: all materials in this record are licensed under CC BY-ND 4.0. They may be used and shared freely with attribution, but not modified, to keep the standard consistent. In addition, the author grants permission to translate the specification and the text of the labels, provided the translation is faithful, credits the author, is identified as a translation of CLARA v1.0, and the author is notified (see section 10 of the specification).
Author: Dávila-Montañez, Melissa
Institution: University of Puerto Rico at Río Piedras
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7225341903