{"id":1688,"date":"2025-09-22T09:15:18","date_gmt":"2025-09-22T08:15:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.aber.ac.uk\/librarian\/?p=1688"},"modified":"2025-09-22T09:15:21","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T08:15:21","slug":"why-you-shouldnt-let-ai-do-your-bibliography-for-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.aber.ac.uk\/librarian\/?p=1688","title":{"rendered":"Why You Shouldn\u2019t Let AI Do Your Bibliography for You"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Look, I\u2019ve been there. It\u2019s 2am and you\u2019ve got an assignment due later that day. Your references are looking a bit thin, and the temptation to ask an AI tool to whip up some citations for you can be irresistible. One prompt and you\u2019ve got a neat list of journal articles and books. Perfect, right? Well\u2026 not always.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here\u2019s the catch (there\u2019s always a catch!): AI tools are great at generating <em>convincing-looking<\/em> references. The titles sound plausible, author names are familiar, and the journals look legitimate. But sometimes appearances are deceptive, and the references have no connection to reality. This is what people mean when they talk about <strong>AI hallucinations.<\/strong> The tool invents a source that looks perfectly credible but doesn\u2019t actually exist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"436\" height=\"290\" src=\"http:\/\/wordpress.aber.ac.uk\/librarian\/files\/2025\/09\/AI-Bibliography-Image.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1689\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Why does this matter?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The most important reason is: <strong>that you shouldn\u2019t put anything in your bibliography that you haven\u2019t actually read.<\/strong> A bibliography isn\u2019t just a list of things that <em>might<\/em> support your argument; it\u2019s a record of the sources you\u2019ve genuinely engaged with. If you haven\u2019t read the book, article, or paper, you can\u2019t know whether it really says what you think it says, or whether it fits your argument at all.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Putting a made-up citation into your work undermines the credibility of your whole assignment.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Your lecturers and tutors can (and often will) check your references. If they can\u2019t find them, it\u2019s a problem.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Good referencing isn\u2019t just box-ticking, it\u2019s how you show you\u2019ve done the reading and can back up your ideas. It\u2019s also about giving proper credit and joining the scholarly conversation.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Universities take referencing seriously: misusing or inventing sources can be flagged as poor or even unacceptable academic practice, with real consequences for your marks.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>So what should you do?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Verify, verify, verify!<\/strong> If an AI gives you a reference, <em>always<\/em> double-check it against a reliable source &#8211; in the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.primo.aber.ac.uk\">library catalogue<\/a>, Google Scholar, or a subject database.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Ask your librarian.<\/strong> That\u2019s what we\u2019re here for. We can help you find legitimate, citable sources, show you how to search databases effectively, and help you guide you through proper referencing styles so you don\u2019t have to wrestle with formatting at 2 a.m.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>AI has lots of uses, but it\u2019s not infallible, and it\u2019s definitely not a replacement for critical thinking (or a decent library search).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So next time you\u2019re tempted to drop those AI generated citations straight into your bibliography, stop, double-check, and if you need help, turn to your librarian, although if it\u2019s 2 a.m., the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.primo.aber.ac.uk\">library catalogue<\/a> is probably your best bet!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For more information on AI can be found <a href=\"https:\/\/libguides.aber.ac.uk\/c.php?g=717023&amp;p=5196328\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Look, I\u2019ve been there. It\u2019s 2am and you\u2019ve got an assignment due later that day. Your references are looking a bit thin, and the temptation to ask an AI tool to whip up some citations for you can be irresistible. One prompt and you\u2019ve got a neat list of journal articles and books. Perfect, right? [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31644,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[132,130,320],"tags":[264,266,42],"class_list":["post-1688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-information-skills","category-learning","category-referencing","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-information-skills"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.aber.ac.uk\/librarian\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.aber.ac.uk\/librarian\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.aber.ac.uk\/librarian\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.aber.ac.uk\/librarian\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/31644"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.aber.ac.uk\/librarian\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1688"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.aber.ac.uk\/librarian\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1688\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1690,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.aber.ac.uk\/librarian\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1688\/revisions\/1690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.aber.ac.uk\/librarian\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.aber.ac.uk\/librarian\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.aber.ac.uk\/librarian\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}