Issue
Citation Points to Wrong Source
A citation, reference, link, or source pointer is present, but it points to the wrong source, wrong passage, wrong document, or unsupported evidence.
What This Looks Like
The answer includes a citation, link, document reference, file pointer, or source label, but following it does not support the claim being made. The cited source may be unrelated, too broad, from the wrong document, attached to the wrong sentence, or pointed at a passage that says something different.
Why It Matters
A bad citation can be more damaging than no citation because it creates a false appearance of verification. Users may trust the answer, pass it forward, or rely on it in a workflow because the output appears sourced. Reviewers then have to separate the claim from the reference and determine whether either one is usable.
Structural Signal
The output has a reference object, but the reference does not match the claim, passage, document, or evidence requirement it is supposed to support. The failure is in the link between answer and source, not simply in the answer text.
Common Triggers
- Source references are attached after generation instead of preserved during reasoning
- Retrieval returns a relevant document but not the supporting passage
- The answer merges claims from several sources and assigns the wrong citation
- A citation format is required but source-to-claim alignment is not checked
- The system treats document-level relevance as enough for passage-level support
- A source link survives from an earlier answer after the content changes
When to Use This Issue
Use this Issue when a source pointer exists but does not support the specific claim, sentence, field, recommendation, or evidence requirement it is attached to.
When Not to Use This Issue
Do not use this Issue when the answer has no source at all. Use the missing-trace Issue instead. Do not use it when the citation is valid but the user disagrees with the source’s credibility, freshness, or interpretation.
Category
Primary Pattern
Declared Patterns
Reference Instability
A structural condition where references, identifiers, links, or anchors change across equivalent evaluations without a declared cause.
Interface Mismatch
A structural condition where observed interface behavior, shape, or exchange differs from the declared interface contract.
Compatibility Violation
A structural condition where a graph, object, behavior, or runtime state exceeds a declared compatibility envelope without an authorized exception.
Derived Primary Lenses
Compatibility Envelope Lens
Determines whether structure fits within declared runtime, platform, version, or support constraints.
Interface Contract Lens
Compares declared interface structure to observed runtime structure to detect contract deviations.
Reference Stability Lens
Evaluates whether structural references, identifiers, nodes, and edges remain consistent across execution cycles or comparable states.
Derived Secondary Lenses
Boundary Compliance Lens
Evaluates observed structure against declared boundary posture, including allow, block, and exception rules.
Determinism Lens
Evaluates whether identical structural inputs produce equivalent structural outputs across repeated executions.
Normalization Lens
Transforms structurally equivalent variants into a canonical form to prevent false divergence.
Search Intents
- citation points to wrong source
- AI citation is wrong
- source does not support the answer
- citation link goes to wrong document
- AI cited the wrong passage
- reference points to unrelated source