What is Citation?
Also called Source Attribution, Provenance.
A citation is a reference attached to a generated statement that identifies the source passage supporting it, usually as a document title, link, or passage identifier. Citations let a reader verify a claim, and they let a system be audited when an answer later turns out to be wrong.
In a retrieval based system every retrieved passage carries an identifier, so an answer composed from those passages can name which one supported each part. Implementations range from listing the sources consulted at the end, which is weak, to marking individual sentences with the passage they came from, which is far more useful for verification.
Accuracy of citations is a separate problem from accuracy of answers. A model may attach a plausible source to a claim that source does not actually support, which is sometimes called citation hallucination. Systems address it by verifying support programmatically, for example by checking the cited passage against the claim before the answer is shown.
Citations also change reader behavior in useful ways. People who can open the source spot outdated policies and misreadings that would otherwise pass unnoticed, which turns the audience into part of the quality process. In regulated settings, traceability from an answer back to an approved document is often a requirement rather than a nicety.
Design details matter. Links must respect access permissions, since citing a document the reader cannot open is unhelpful and may itself disclose information. Showing the document date next to the link helps readers judge freshness, and preserving the exact quoted span makes verification quick rather than a hunt through a long page.
Key points
- Points a claim back to the passage that supports it.
- Sentence level citations verify better than a source list.
- Cited sources can be wrong, so support should be checked.
- Links must respect the reader's access permissions.
- Showing dates helps readers judge freshness.
In practice
An answer states that annual plans renew automatically thirty days before expiry, followed by a link to the billing terms with the supporting sentence quoted and a note that the document was updated last month. A reader who doubts the claim opens the link, finds the sentence in place, and confirms it in a few seconds.