Expert: Maxim Topaz, Professor, Columbia University Data Science Institute A Lancet audit led by Maxim Topaz (Columbia University Data Science Institute) verified 97.1 million references across PubMed-indexed papers and found 4,406 fabricated citations spread across 2,810 papers. One in 277 papers published in the first seven weeks of 2026 cited a paper that does not exist — up from 1 in 458 in 2025 and 1 in 2,828 in 2023, a roughly 12-fold rise in two years. Over 98% of the affected papers had seen no publisher action at the time of the audit. Former JAMA editor Howard Bauchner and former JAMA Pediatrics editor Frederick Rivara argue papers with hallucinated references should be retracted. Topaz warns the damage is already done — the contamination does not go away when the AI gets better. The sharpest increase began mid-2024, coinciding with the rise of AI writing tools. Source: https://retractionwatch.com/2026/05/07/one-in-277-pubmed-indexed-papers-in-2026-shows-fabricated-references-says-analysis/