Evidence and citations

A citation links an answer to source content returned by retrieval. It can help you inspect the quoted or highlighted context and decide whether the answer represents it fairly.

Citations are conditional. A database analysis, model-only answer, tool result, or unsupported source can produce an answer without a document citation. A citation can also fail to open when the source is unavailable, access has changed, or the returned locator cannot be resolved.

Verification questions

• Does the source support the specific claim, not merely mention the topic?
• Is the source current and authoritative for this decision?
• Are important qualifiers omitted from the answer?
• For numbers, can the result be reproduced from the underlying data?