I can’t find the citations that ChatGPT gave me. What should I do?
137 views | Last updated on Apr 07, 2025
ChatGPT and other generative AI tools make up citations that don't exist.
ChatGPT might offer you citations for articles by a real author that usually writes about your topic, or even correctly identify a journal that publishes articles on your topic, but the title, pages numbers, and dates are completely fictional. This is because ChatGPT is not connected to the internet, so it has no way of identifying actual sources.
You can try to see if sources offered by generative AI are valid by using the Library Search on our homepage or GoogleScholar, but chances are good that the sources do not exist.
It's better to use ChatGPT for tasks like these:
- Brainstorming and getting unstuck
- Editing and constructive criticism of your writing
- Summarizing long texts
Generative AI is not designed to be a search engine. Use Library Search, Google Scholar, or library research databases for your area of study instead.
Adapted from “University of Arizona Libraries, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.”
