Testing Our Foundations: Citation Trends, Errors, and Emerging Hallucinations in the Computing Education Literature

A recent research study highlights a growing concern regarding the integrity of scholarly citations, particularly the emergence of fabricated references (hallucinations) due to the rapid adoption of large language models. The study analyzed over 24,000 computing education papers and compared them to a broader corpus of 723,000 ACM papers, identifying issues related to reference accuracy and trends. This trend poses a significant threat to the foundational principles of academic rigor and knowledge validation.

The integrity of research is paramount for evidence-based decision-making and innovation across all sectors. The proliferation of fabricated citations, if unchecked, can erode trust in published work, undermine the reproducibility of studies, and lead to misinformed strategies and policies based on non-existent or misrepresented information.

Accurate references are fundamental for scholarly work, supporting verification, attribution, and systematic review.

Forward consideration, not a verified fact.