Illusory Citations and Academic Hallucination: Generative AI and the Erosion of Scholarly Authenticity — A Comparative Study of Arab and International Open-Access Journals

Illusory Citations and Academic Hallucination: Generative AI and the Erosion of Scholarly Authenticity — A Comparative Study of Arab and International Open-Access Journals | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Illusory Citations and Academic Hallucination: Generative AI and the Erosion of Scholarly Authenticity — A Comparative Study of Arab and International Open-Access Journals Mohammed Ahmad Yahya Moharram This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-9260615/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract This study aims to analyze the impact of risks associated with the use of generative artificial intelligence tools on scholarly integrity in research published in open-access journals, by conducting a comparative analysis across three levels: the global level, the level of developed countries, and the Arab region. The study adopts a critical analytical methodology based on a systematic literature review (23 previous studies) and the analysis of open-access data from platforms such as OSF Preprints, CrossRef, and Semantic Scholar . The findings reveal that the proportion of entirely fabricated hallucinated citations reaches 19.9%, with significant errors present in 45.4% of other citations (Enago, 2026 ). At the Arab level, the results indicate a clear knowledge gap: while 84.2% of researchers call for mandatory disclosure of AI use, the percentage of Arab academic libraries that have implemented clear ethical policies does not exceed 12%. The study concludes that open-access journals are facing an unprecedented “crisis of trust,” and proposes an integrated ethical governance framework combining transparency, accountability, institutional training, and automated citation verification. Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Cultural Studies Generative Artificial Intelligence Scholarly Integrity Hallucinated Citations Open-Access Journals Full Text Additional Declarations The authors declare no competing interests. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. 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