Broken citation or academic misconduct? How to spot the difference

For editors, reviewers and researchers, a broken reference, missing paper or questionable article citing their work can raise a difficult question: is this a genuine error or something more serious?

In the age of generative AI, it is tempting to read a citation discrepancy as carelessness or misconduct. But often the story is more complicated.

Citation errors can arise through reference managers, publisher metadata, indexing systems, broken DOI links and search tools, all of which can make incorrect information look credible. Awareness of this should be part of responsible research and publishing practice: before relying on a source, sharing a claim or accusing an author, run a quick citation check.

A plausible-looking citation can still be wrong

A citation can look genuine and still be wrong in two ways. Sometimes the article is real, but the imported details are inaccurate. At other times, the citation looks credible, but the journal, source record or metadata is not trustworthy.

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The first problem can occur when a reference manager pulls incomplete or incorrect metadata from a web page, publisher record, DOI or search result. Studies have found citation errors in EndNote, Mendeley, RefWorks and Zotero, particularly when importing from web pages. Mendeley has described fixing a web importer bug that showed the same references across different browser tabs.

The second problem is harder to spot. Researchers have found GPT-fabricated papers listed in Google Scholar alongside genuine research; a 2026 audit in The Lancet found fabricated references across millions of biomedical papers, and Retraction Watch tracks hijacked journals that mimic legitimate titles. Citations can even be sneaked into metadata without appearing in the article itself.

The implications are serious. If a source does not exist, or the citation points to the wrong source, the article’s reliability is weakened.

The first step is to identify the problem

Before acting on a suspicious citation, establish what kind of error you are dealing with. Most cases involve one of four issues:

• The source is real, but a citation detail – author, year, title, journal or DOI – is wrong.
• The citation points to the wrong version, such as a preprint cited as the final published article.
• The source exists, but the venue is not trustworthy: a hijacked journal, predatory outlet, copied journal website or unverifiable repository.
• The source does not appear to exist at all: the citation may be fabricated, AI-generated or copied from an unchecked reference list.

Each needs a different response. Update early versions to the published article. Verify questionable journals or websites before relying on them. Never cite a source that does not appear to exist; if reviewing, tell the editor what you checked.

A three-step check for academic citations

First, confirm the paper exists and its source is credible. Do not rely on a single Google Scholar result, PDF upload or reference-manager import; look for the publisher’s article page, the journal’s website and, where relevant, a trusted index such as PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science or DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals. Google Scholar is useful for casting a wide net, but treat it as a starting point, not confirmation.

Second, check the citation details match the source: compare the title, author order, year, journal name and DOI against the publisher page or DOI registry. Databases do not update instantly – Google Scholar says updates can take six to nine months, a year or longer – so an old or odd record is not automatically evidence of misconduct.

Third, read the relevant section carefully to check it supports the claim the citation makes. When sources are cited without being checked, errors compound through citation chaining: one analysis of repeated citation misprints estimated that many citations are copied from other reference lists rather than read, and a meta-analysis of medical articles found quotation errors common.

How to check citations of your own work

Checking citations is not only about the sources you use, but about making sure your own work is cited accurately. A few checks can help.

Start with your profiles. Keep your Orcid up to date, review your Google Scholar and Scopus profiles, merge duplicates and remove papers that are not yours. This helps readers, editors and librarians see which outputs are genuinely yours.

Then set alerts for your name and key publication titles. If an unfamiliar citation appears in an unrelated journal or website, search the citing article for your name and title. Check whether your work is cited in the article itself, whether the details are correct, and whether the citation appears only in the metadata.

What you do next depends on what you find. If your paper is cited with wrong details that could misdirect readers, email the corresponding author or journal. If a paper cites work of yours that does not exist, report it to the publisher or platform. If you are listed as an author on a paper you did not write, contact the journal and publisher and copy in your research office or library.

Keep a record of anything suspicious – title, journal, link, screenshots, date and what looks wrong – so your library or research office has something solid to act on.

The aim is not to become suspicious of everything, but to protect both the sources you rely on and how your own work is represented. Checking citations prevents incorrect references from spreading and can reveal when a name or publication has been pulled into fabricated, misleading or unrelated citation trails.

A broken citation is not automatically misconduct, but the only way to know for sure is to check.

Faith Jeremiah is a lecturer in entrepreneurship and innovation in the department of global value chains and trade at Lincoln University, New Zealand.

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