# CheckIfExist: Detecting Citation Hallucinations in the Era of AI-Generated Content

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.15871 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.15871/

## Key facts

- Cited by 5 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 5 of its 23 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 27 Jan 2026.

## Builds on (most cited first, 5 of 5)

- [Survey of Hallucination in Natural Language Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2202.03629/) (2022)
- [OpenAlex: A fully-open index of scholarly works, authors, venues, institutions, and concepts](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.01833/) (2022)
- [Construction of the Literature Graph in Semantic Scholar](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1805.02262/) (2018)
- [Do Language Models Know When They're Hallucinating References?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.18248/) (2023)
- [Evaluating the Linguistic Coverage of OpenAlex: An Assessment of Metadata Accuracy and Completeness](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.10633/) (2024)

## Built on by (most cited first, 5 of 5)

- [Detecting and Correcting Reference Hallucinations in Commercial LLMs and Deep Research Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.03173/) (2026)
- [BibTeX Citation Errors in Scientific Publishing Agents: Evaluation and Mitigation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.03159/) (2026)
- [HALLMARK: How to Diagnose LLM Citation Verifiers and When to Deploy Them](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.18360/) (2026)
- [CiteCheck: Retrieval-Grounded Detection of LLM Citation Hallucinations in Scientific Text](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.27700/) (2026)
- [Per-Entity Bias Mapping for AI Visibility: Why Brand Mentions Require Entity-Specific Calibration](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.21595/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

The proliferation of large language models (LLMs) in academic workflows has introduced unprecedented challenges to bibliographic integrity, particularly through reference hallucination -- the generation of plausible but non-existent citations. Recent investigations have documented the presence of AI-hallucinated citations even in papers accepted at premier machine learning conferences such as NeurIPS and ICLR, underscoring the urgency of automated verification mechanisms. This paper presents "CheckIfExist", an open-source web-based tool designed to provide immediate verification of bibliographic references through multi-source validation against CrossRef, Semantic Scholar, and OpenAlex scholarly databases. While existing reference management tools offer bibliographic organization capabilities, they do not provide real-time validation of citation authenticity. Commercial hallucination detection services, though increasingly available, often impose restrictive usage limits on free tiers or require substantial subscription fees. The proposed tool fills this gap by employing a cascading validation architecture with string similarity algorithms to compute multi-dimensional match confidence scores, delivering instant feedback on reference authenticity. The system supports both single-reference verification and batch processing of BibTeX entries through a unified interface, returning validated APA citations and exportable BibTeX records within seconds.