Towards Nexus-Score: Metadata Gaps Limit Scholarly AI Attribution
Aadi Narayana Varma Dantuluri, Sushrut Thorat, Paras Chopra
Abstract
Artificial intelligence systems increasingly mediate how science is found and credited. We asked whether missing metadata prevents AI systems from crediting work. As a boundary test, an AI system citing without access to task-relevant paper lists often produced out-of-list identifiers, some fabricated. We then tested the mechanism in real scholarly infrastructure by using OpenAlex records to hide or restore author, institution, funder, reference, and text-access links while holding works and tasks fixed. Restoring the relevant link made the corresponding attribution possible; restoring the wrong kind did not, with 0 correct answers across 469 completed mismatched tests. Thus, in these tasks, one metadata facet did not substitute for another. Missing links led to invented answers, refusals, or tool-budget exhaustion, and web search did not recover hidden author links. In sum, AI systems credited work only when record connections were visible or recoverable. This motivates Nexus-Score, a record-level check for metadata gaps, to guide repair and help prepare the scholarly record for AI-mediated use.
Topics
Classified with taxonomy v2 on Sat, 5 Sept 2026.