AI in Scientific Writing: Opportunity, Risk, and Responsibility

Send us Fan MailA citation can be polished, specific, and completely fake and that’s the scary part. We sit down with Morna Conway, PhD, Scholarly Journal Consultant and JAVMA and AJVR Copy Editor Vic Schultz to unpack how generative AI tools like ChatGPT can hallucinate references, remixing real author names, familiar journal titles, and plausible article wording into sources that simply do not exist. If you write, review, edit, or read scientific articles in veterinary medicine, this conversation is a practical guide to protecting research integrity in the age of AI-assisted writing.We walk through how these fabricated citations get discovered, from peer reviewers who know the field well enough to spot a suspicious claim to copy editors who notice missing DOIs, dead Crossref links, absent PMIDs, or volume and page details that don’t add up. Dr. Lisa Fortier shares how editorial workflows shape when problems are caught and why JAVMA and AJVR take a hard line: if hallucinated references are found, the editorial team can reject the manuscript even after acceptance because accuracy is non-negotiable for credible scientific publishing.We also get specific about responsible AI use in scientific writing: disclose how you used AI, describe the workflow, and personally verify every output before submission. The best advice sounds old-school because it works: proofread, slow down, and click every DOI. If you found this helpful, subscribe, share the episode with a colleague, and leave a rating and review to help more researchers find it.JAVMA editorial: https://doi.org/10.2460/javma.264.4.382Scientific Reports article: Fabrication and errors in the bibliographic citations generated by ChatGPT | Scientific ReportsINTERESTED IN SUBMITTING YOUR MANUSCRIPT TO JAVMA ®  OR AJVR ® ?JAVMA ® : https://avma.org/JAVMAAuthorsAJVR ® : https://avma.org/AJVRAuthorsFOLLOW US:JAVMA ® :Facebook: Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association - JAVMA | FacebookInstagram: JAVMA (@avma_javma) • Instagram photos and videosTwitter: JAVMA (@AVMAJAVMA) / Twitter AJVR ® : Facebook: American Journal of Veterinary Research - AJVR | FacebookInstagram: AJVR (@ajvroa) • Instagram photos and videosTwitter: AJVR (@AJVROA) / TwitterJAVMA ®  and AJVR ®  LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/company/avma-journals