Indexed, Ranked, but Not Verified: Why Bibliometric Status Cannot Guarantee Scholarly Integrity in the Age of AI-Hallucinated Citations? Editorial Letter

Ilham Kurniawan (Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Pembangunan Nasional Veteran Jawa Timur, Surabaya, 60294, Indonesia)

Journal of Diverse Medical Research: Medicosphere
Vol. 3 No. 5 (2026): Journal of Diverse Medical Research : Medicosphere 2026

Preamble A question that should unsettle every editor, reviewer, and author is this: What happens when fabricated, unverifiable references appear in peer‑reviewed articles published in indexed journals? This is no longer hypothetical. It is a reality that forces us to confront an uncomfortable truth indexation is not innocence, and a Scopus badge is not a certificate of integrity. As Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Medicosphere, I believe this demands urgent attention. The integrity of the scholarly record the foundation of scientific progress is under threat from generative artificial intelligence.