If you want sources for an answer, ask ChatGPT to search and include them. If you already have a draft with references, check those references against their originals before formatting the bibliography. These are separate tasks: making an entry look correct does not establish that the source exists or supports the text.
OpenAI's web search documentation, checked October 24, 2026, says search results and citations appear when ChatGPT uses web search. Workspace settings can restrict access. Requesting a citation is useful, but you still need to inspect the resulting evidence.
Ask for a source that answers your exact question
Include the subject, relevant dates, and the kind of authority needed. For a venue's opening hours, request the venue's current visitor page. For a software feature, request its official documentation. A general article about the topic may be background without answering the particular question.
Answer this question: [QUESTION].
Relevant location, product/version, and dates: [DETAILS].
Search for current primary sources. Attach a source to each factual
answer, and distinguish the source's statement from your inference.
If a source is inaccessible or does not answer the question, say so.
Do not fill missing details from a similarly named place or product.
Open the cited page yourself. Confirm that it is the named organization's actual page, then look for the specific passage. If the link opens a homepage or a long report, ask ChatGPT for the section heading or page number. Check that location in the original; a locator is another detail that can be wrong.
Test whether the passage supports the whole claim
Consider this authored practice example, which is not a real study or ChatGPT output:
| Item | Wording |
|---|---|
| Source passage | Of 18 workshop participants who returned a survey, 12 said the handout was useful. |
| Draft sentence | Two-thirds of all workshop attendees improved their skills. |
| Supported sentence | Twelve of the 18 survey respondents said the handout was useful. |
The arithmetic in the draft is not its main problem: 12 out of 18 is two-thirds. The draft changes respondents to all attendees and usefulness to improved skills. Neither change follows from the passage.
When reviewing a citation, check who or what was studied, what was measured, when it applied, and any conditions. Keep those details in the sentence when removing them would change the meaning. OpenAI's research evidence workflow likewise calls for checking citations against original sources and preserving their scope and uncertainty.
Use a claim-to-source check on an existing draft
Give each consequential sentence its own row. This makes a missing source easier to see than a list of links at the bottom of a polished answer.
Review the draft and source material below. Do not rewrite yet.
For each factual claim, return:
- The exact draft sentence.
- Its cited source and location within that source.
- The supporting passage, if accessible.
- Whether the passage supports the whole sentence, only part of it,
contradicts it, or cannot be checked.
- A narrower revision when the draft exceeds the evidence.
Keep facts from the source separate from your interpretation.
Do not invent quotations, page numbers, authors, titles, or URLs.
Draft: [PASTE]
Source material or links I am permitted to use: [PASTE]
For the practice sentence, the narrower revision should retain “survey respondents” and “said the handout was useful.” An answer labeling the original sentence supported would need correction even if it repeats the right fraction.
If ChatGPT cannot access a source, open it through your own permitted access and supply the relevant passage. Keep the surrounding context. A clipped sentence can omit a limitation found immediately before it.
Format references after checking them
For a bibliography, use the verified author, title, publication date, publisher or journal, and DOI or URL from the source itself. Specify the citation style and its required edition. Ask ChatGPT to flag missing fields rather than supplying plausible ones, then compare the entries with your institution's style guide.
If your assignment requires citing or disclosing your use of ChatGPT itself, follow that assignment's AI policy and the relevant style guide. A citation to ChatGPT documents the tool you used; it does not replace the underlying evidence for an external factual claim.
For a longer investigation, the ChatGPT research report guide covers setting research boundaries before generating a report. Here, finish by correcting or removing unsupported sentences and retaining the verified reference beside each remaining claim. Format the bibliography from that checked set.