Hallucinated citations are polluting the scientific literature. What can be done

NEWS FEATURE 01 April 2026 Hallucinated citations are polluting the scientific literature. What can be done? Tens of thousands of publications from 2025 might include invalid references generated by AI, a Nature analysis suggests. By Miryam Naddaf & Elizabeth Quill1 Miryam Naddaf View author publications Search author on: PubMed Google Scholar Elizabeth Quill Elizabeth Quill is a freelance editor in Washington DC. View author publications Search author on: PubMed Google Scholar Email Bluesky Facebook LinkedIn Reddit Whatsapp X Illustration: Adam Wójcicki Earlier this year, computer scientist Guillaume Cabanac received a notification from Google Scholar that one of his publications had been cited in a paper published in the International Dental Journal1.

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