Many people complain ChatGPT The information provided is not accurate. This is mainly because it does not tell you where the information comes from, and does not list references or links. But in fact, ChatGPT can do more than that.
How to get ChatGPT to provide sources and citations
ChatGPT will give you the source if you know how to properly prompt it. Here’s how.
1. Write ChatGPT prompts and ask questions
First, you need to ask ChatGPT some questions that require sources or citations. I find it’s best to ask a question that has a longer answer so ChatGPT has more content to “digest.”
Note that the free version of ChatGPT cannot provide any information after 2021, and for information requests before the Internet, there will be far fewer information sources available.
for example:
Describe the scientific basis and impacts of global warming
2. Ask ChatGPT to provide the source of the information
This requires some prompt words. For example:
Please provide source for the previous answer
I find this prompt often leads to non-web sources like books, papers, etc. The problem with sources like these is that you can't check their authenticity. But it's a start. A better way to ask is:
Please provide the URL source
This prompt explicitly tells ChatGPT that you want clickable source links. You can also tweak this prompt by asking for a specific number of sources, though the number of responses you get may vary:
Please provide 10 URL sources
Next, we'll look at what to do with these links.
3. Ask ChatGPT to provide you with better sources
ChatGPT (and most large language model AIs) respond well to detail and specifics, so if you ask for sources, you can ask it to provide higher quality sources.
You need to make it clear that you need reliable and accurate sources. While this may not be effective, it may prompt the AI to give you a more useful response. For example
Please provide me with reliable sources to support my arguments on [insert topic].
You can also tell ChatGPT what type of sources you are looking for. If you are looking for academic articles, books, or authoritative websites, mention these requirements explicitly. For example
Please recommend an authoritative website that discusses [insert the topic discussed in previous conversation].
When discussing abstract concepts or theories, ChatGPT is asked to provide conceptual frameworks and practical examples. For example:
Can you describe the principles of Vygotsky's theory of social development and provide real-life examples of how these principles were applied, including sources for these examples?
This approach provides you not only with theoretical explanations but also with practical examples that you can trace back to primary sources or case studies.
Note: Try to avoid asking ChatGPT to provide recent sources, as ChatGPT does not know what happens after 2021.
While you might be tempted to use a prompt like this:
Please provide sources published within the past five years
Consider using a prompt like this:
Please provide sources published between 2019 and 2021.
And don’t assume that all the answers ChatGPT gives you are accurate. It’s still possible that it completely fabricated the answers, even making up the names of academic journals. It can be a useful tool at times, but it’s also a scam.
4. Try to verify/confirm the source provided
Regarding the sources of information provided by ChatGPT, please keep this principle in mind: ChatGPT is often more wrong than right.
When I asked ChatGPT for URL sources multiple times, about half of the links were useless. Another 25% or more links pointed to topics that were completely unrelated or not very relevant to the topic you were trying to get.
But don’t lose heart. We don’t expect ChatGPT to provide you with a source of information that you can use right away. If you use ChatGPT as a research assistant, it will provide you with some great help.
Use the names of these articles (which may be completely fake or simply inaccessible) and put them into Baidu or Google for further verification.
Although ChatGPT is convenient, don't forget that you have many other options. Using ChatGPT doesn't mean you can ignore all other research tools and methods. Try searching online yourself or ask experts in the field, they may be able to give you a lot of help.
Also, don’t ignore traditional academic resources. For example, platforms like CNKI and Wanfang Data provide a large amount of academic resources, and you can cite these materials with confidence.
Remember, you should use ChatGPT answers as inspiration, not as a replacement for actual research work.
5. Consider upgrading to ChatGPT Plus
Although the $20 per month ChatGPT Plus service is not cheap, it is much better than the free version. It uses a more advanced GPT-4 model that can search for information online. This allows it to find more up-to-date information and is no longer limited to data before 2021.
However, even if ChatGPT Plus can connect to the Internet, sometimes the information it gives may be wrong. That is, it may tell you some "facts" that do not exist at all. Therefore, you still have to confirm the authenticity of the information when using it.