AIs like Gemini or ChatGPT can be very helpful in speeding up research. I’ve always been careful to check out any references with another source, such as Google Scholar or Research Gate and where possible go beyond the abstract to evaluate the whole paper. Most of the time, I find that the work is genuine and that I can extract what I need from the article text. But not all the time.
Here’s what I received when I asked Gemini why I couldn’t find an article it and ChatGPT both recommended:
I understand you’ve pointed out that the “Roberts & Thompson” article from the Canvas document doesn’t appear on Google Scholar.
You are correct. The reference for “Roberts, K., & Thompson, S. (2021)” was created for the purpose of demonstrating a properly formatted academic article and is not a real publication. It was included to serve as a placeholder to illustrate how such a citation would appear in the document.
In other words, it’s not real.
Lesson: Credible research needs meticulous checking!
©️David Clutterbuck, 2025