 | This is an essay. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints. |
 | This page in a nutshell: The citation of non-existent references, or references that are known to be irrelevant, to support article information, is forbidden. |
A fictitious reference is a source that is listed within an article that an editor has added to support specific text within an article, or to support a claim of notability for the article's topic, while in reality that source does not exist,[1] has nothing to do with the article and/or the information that the source is supposed to support, or otherwise does not support the content. Fictitious references are typically those used to support a hoax, original research, essays or opinion passed off as neutral facts, conflicts of interest, blatant advertising or spam, attack pages, or otherwise non-notable material passed off as notable. Large language models also regularly invent ghost references, and unconscientious researchers may cite these in works they write.[2][3]
The fact that a source does not meet Wikipedia's reliable sources guideline does not automatically make it fictitious; many editors do not fully understand this guideline, and a source that is considered reliable for one thing (such as a policy position of a candidate) may not be reliable for another (such as what an opponent has said or done). Also, some sources, though they do not establish notability, may be used to verify truth.
The use of fictitious references is a form of gaming the system to circumvent Wikipedia policies and guidelines. It is a most serious offense because it compromises the integrity of Wikipedia as an encyclopedia. If any fictitious references are found on a page, they, and any information they solely support, shall be immediately removed upon discovery. Editors who find such a reference are encouraged to examine the full article to determine if it meets one or more criteria for deletion, even possibly speedy deletion. In addition, editors responsible for the placement of such information shall be warned; if they have been previously warned and persistent in such behavior, they may even be blocked. Problems should be reported at the incidents section of the administrators' noticeboard.
When in doubt about the truth of such a reference, but also unsure that it is really fake, the accuracy shall be discussed. A {{dubious}} tag should be placed following the information in question. Such a discussion will hopefully attract some experts who can verify the accuracy of the reference and whatever information it is purported to support. If it is determined that any references or information shall be removed, but there is no definitive proof that its placement was done in bad faith, no action shall be taken against any editors. Any information that is removed can always be reinstated if confirmed to be true.
- ^ Nobody, A (28 February 1066). "Source that does not exist". Journal of Non-Existent Pages. 6 (5): 432.
- ^ Brodkin, Jon (31 May 2023). "Federal judge: No AI in my courtroom unless a human verifies its accuracy". Ars Technica.
- ^ Brodkin, Jon (23 June 2023). "Lawyers have real bad day in court after citing fake cases made up by ChatGPT". Ars Technica.