Medical Teacher’s first ChatGPT’s referencing hallucinations: Lessons for editors, reviewers, and teachers

Abstract

Students’ inappropriate use of ChatGPT is a concern. There is also, however, the potential for academics to use ChatGPT inappropriately. After explaining ChatGPT’s “hallucinations” regarding citing and referencing, this commentary illustrates the problem by describing the detection of the first known Medical Teacher submission using ChatGPT inappropriately, the lessons that can be drawn from it for journal editors, reviewers, and teachers, and then the wider implications if this problem is left unchecked.