Studies Report Sharp Increase in AI-Generated Fake References in Scientific Research
Recent studies reveal a significant rise in AI-generated fabricated references infiltrating scientific literature, particularly since mid-2024. Analysis of millions of research papers across major repositories like PubMed Central and arXiv found over 146,000 fake citations in 2025 alone, often bypassing peer review. These hallucinated references disproportionately affect less experienced authors, raising concerns about research integrity and prompting calls for improved verification systems to address unchecked AI misinformation in academia.