For Research & Instruction Librarians

You’re the people students come to when ChatGPT invents a citation. We built CiteDash because that conversation should not have to happen.

The information-literacy challenge in 2026

Generative AI has rewritten the citation-literacy curriculum twice in two years. Students arrive at the reference desk with bibliographies built from ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity outputs. Some citations are real. Many are not. Distinguishing the two used to be a half-hour DOI-resolution session; increasingly, it’s the entire hour.

CiteDash is the tool we wish we’d had as a teaching aid. It does what general-purpose chatbots don’t: searches real databases first, verifies every claim against its source, and refuses to fabricate. That makes it both a recommendable research tool for students and a worked example you can use in instruction.

What librarians use CiteDash for

• One-shot AI-literacy sessions: live demos comparing ChatGPT vs CiteDash on the same query. Students see fabrication patterns in real time.
• LibGuide listings: feature CiteDash on your AI Research Tools or Citation Tools guides alongside Zotero, Elicit, and Consensus.
• Reference desk recommendations: when a student needs help vetting AI-generated citations, point them at CiteDash and our hallucination-detection guide.
• Citation-verification workshops: use our free workshop deck to teach DOI resolution, CrossRef lookup, and the difference between retrieval-first and generation-first AI tools.
• Faculty consultations: when faculty ask which AI tool to recommend for class use, CiteDash gives a clear answer that respects academic integrity.

Free Pro access for librarians

Verified research and instruction librarians at accredited institutions can request a free Pro subscription for personal teaching and reference work. Email advisors@citedash.ai with your institutional library URL and we’ll set you up. We’ll also send the current draft of our librarian-focused workshop materials so you can adapt them for your students.

Institutional pilot programs

We’re running a 2026 pilot program with five R1 university libraries that includes free institutional access for the first 12 months in exchange for a public LibGuide listing and a brief case study. If your library is interested, get in touch — we’re prioritising libraries that are actively shaping AI policy on their campus.

How CiteDash differs from generic chatbots

• Retrieval-first: searches real databases (Semantic Scholar, CrossRef, OpenAlex, PubMed) before generating any text.
• Citation-verified: a second AI agent verifies every claim against its source before delivering results. In our preliminary pilot benchmark, retrieval-first tools fabricated citations at a fraction of the rate of general-purpose chatbots; the full methodology and forthcoming peer-reviewed results are on the benchmark page.
• Discipline-aware: 16 citation styles including Bluebook, OSCOLA, AMA, and Vancouver, plus aware of when primary-source databases (Westlaw, MEDLINE, JSTOR) are needed instead.
• Built for transparency: every report shows which databases were searched, which papers were considered, and which claims map to which sources.

Suggested LibGuide listing

Here’s sample copy you can adapt for an “AI Research Tools” LibGuide entry:

CiteDash — A retrieval-first AI research assistant designed to avoid the citation fabrication problem common in general-purpose chatbots. Searches Semantic Scholar, CrossRef, OpenAlex, and PubMed; generates literature reviews and cited drafts in 16 citation styles. Free tier available; institutional pricing on request. Best for: literature reviews, dissertation chapters, systematic reviews where citation accuracy matters.

Get involved

We’re recruiting our founding Librarian Advisory Board for 2026. If you’d like a seat at the table on product, accessibility, and academic-integrity decisions, please reach out.

Frequently asked questions

Is CiteDash free for librarians?

Yes. Verified research and instruction librarians at accredited institutions can request a free Pro tier for personal use through advisors@citedash.ai. We also offer institutional pilot programs that include all library staff at no cost for the first 12 months.

Can I integrate CiteDash with our LibGuide?

Yes. We provide ready-to-embed CiteDash widgets, sample LibGuide entries comparing AI research tools, and citation-verification workshop materials. Many subject librarians already feature CiteDash alongside Zotero and Elicit on their AI research tool guides.

Does CiteDash hallucinate citations like ChatGPT does?

CiteDash is architecturally different from general-purpose chatbots: every citation is fetched from real academic databases (Semantic Scholar, CrossRef, OpenAlex, PubMed) and verified by a second AI agent before being returned. This retrieval-first design dramatically reduces fabrication compared with generation-first tools like ChatGPT and Claude. Our full methodology — including per-tool fabrication rates from a preliminary pilot — is on the /benchmark/citation-hallucination-2026 page; peer-reviewed results forthcoming.

What resources can I use to teach AI literacy?

We're building a free toolkit for librarians and writing-center directors: a student checklist for spotting AI fabrications, a faculty guide to detecting AI-generated citations, and a workshop deck on responsible AI use. Email advisors@citedash.ai to request the current draft.

Does CiteDash work with our institutional SSO?

We support Google and Apple SSO today. SAML/Shibboleth and OpenAthens are on the institutional roadmap and available in pilot — contact us if your library needs federated auth before general availability.

How does CiteDash handle student data and FERPA?

We don't train any AI on student work or research queries. Student-generated content is encrypted at rest and in transit, isolated by row-level security policies, and deletable on request. We can sign Vendor Security Assessments and FERPA addenda for institutional pilots.