Page 334 - CyberSecurityEssentialsEnglish

• Mistake to avoid: Generating academic text first and then hunting for sources to
support it.

7.9 Verifying References, Quotations, and Fabricated Sources

◆ Key idea: a correctly formatted reference is not evidence.
A reference in the right format does not prove that it is real, and a real source does not
prove that it supports the claim. To verify a reference fully, confirm that the source exists,
match its data field by field, check that its identifier resolves, note its publication status,
and then read the passage that supports the sentence.

Fabricated references are among the best-known risks of using language models in research.
A tool may combine a real author’s name with a plausible title, an existing journal, and an
identifier that resembles the correct format. The result looks convincing because every part

is familiar, but the work does not exist. No citation should therefore move from a model into
a reference list before independent verification.

Checking begins by searching for the full title or the identifier on the publisher’s page or in a

trusted index. Metadata search services allow searching across articles, books, and datasets,
and matching a reference list against probable identifiers [9][10]. If the source does not
appear, try variations of the title and the author, but do not select a near result merely to fill
the gap.

Once the source is found, match the title, the authors, the year, the journal, the volume, and
the pages or article number. Small errors may indicate a conference version, a correction, or
a different article. Open the identifier and confirm that it resolves to an appropriate page. A

valid identifier belonging to a different article is more dangerous than no identifier at all,
because it makes the reference look correct.

The most important step is matching the claim. Open the text and look for the finding, the
table, or the paragraph. The reference may be real yet discuss a neighboring topic, or

mention the claim in its introduction citing another source, or report a relationship in a
limited sample while your sentence states a generalization. A citation does not adorn a
sentence; it must carry its weight.

Check the type and the status of the source. Is it an original article, a review, or an editorial?

Is it a preprint? Has a correction or a retraction been published? Is there a newer version of
the report? Does the web page carry an update date? On changing subjects, an older source
may be historically correct yet unsuitable for describing the present situation.

When quoting directly, check the words, the ellipses, the page number, and the context. Do
not use a quotation that lifts a phrase out of a paragraph carrying the opposite meaning.

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