arXiv:2608.19230cs.DLcs.AI2026-08

大模型选参考文献时出现高度趋同,即使引用都真实也易形成学术垄断。

When AI Writes, Who Gets Cited? Evidence of Citation Monoculture Across Language Models

论文配图:When AI Writes, Who Gets Cited? Evidence of Citation Monoculture Across Language Models
图 1 · 摘自论文原文
  • 在30篇假论文中,11个模型集中选择其中最多10篇,形成引用垄断。
  • 顶级论文获23.3%-30.2%引用,远超随机预期的15.6%。
  • 模型偏好高度相似,源于内容过滤机制而非检索策略差异。

随着语言模型从撰写文字发展为执行文献搜索任务,伪造引用虽更易被发现,但更隐蔽的问题浮现:即便所有候选文献均为真实,不同模型仍可能选出同一狭窄集合,导致引用单一化。我们在120篇真实论文上验证此现象:来自三家厂商的11个模型在30篇标题与摘要真实、但作者、年份、期刊和引用数均虚构的论文面板中,选择不超过10篇。每轮结果与随机选择对比,所有模型均表现出显著集中趋势:最热门的十篇论文获得23.3%-30.2%的引用,远高于随机情况下的15.6%;一个核心成分解释了其偏好图谱68%-73%的差异;跨厂商一致性接近厂商内一致性。将任务形式化为固定预算子集选择后,我们识别出三类可解释机制:交换性边界排除无偏好选择器,谱分解揭示最优混合模型仍保留55%超额集中,稀有性定理预测并验证了面板内的递归竞争效应。受控改写、内容槽位交叉与设计重采样表明,约90%的GPT-5 mini偏好方差源于论文内容本身。八位领域专家在相同盲测面板下以相同引用上限选择,未出现类似共性偏好,而模型集中现象在仅选模式下依然存在。即使所有引用真实且每篇论文可见度均等,当前语言模型仍对科学注意力施加共同的内容级筛选。因此,仅均衡检索或混合厂商不足以为效,必须改变共享的偏好地图。

原文摘要 · Abstract (English)

As language models move from drafting prose to running literature-search agents with tool calls, fabricated references are becoming easier to catch and constrain. The harder failure begins after every candidate is real: different models may still select the same narrow subset, producing citation monoculture without any single citation being wrong. We isolate this effect on 120 real papers. Eleven models from three vendors choose at most ten papers from uniformly random panels of thirty, with real titles and abstracts but fabricated authors, reassigned years, and hidden venues and citation counts. Each run is compared with indifferent selection on the same panel and realized budget. All eleven models concentrate sharply: the top decile receives 23.3-30.2% of citations against 15.6% under the null, one component explains 68-73% of variation across their preference maps, and cross-vendor agreement nearly matches within-vendor agreement. Formalizing the task as fixed-budget subset selection, we turn these patterns into identifiable mechanisms: an exchangeability bound rejects a mapless selector for every model, a spectral decomposition explains why the best cross-fitted mixture still retains 55% of the excess, and a rarity theorem predicts the recursive competition effect we verify within panels. Controlled paraphrase, content-slot crossover, and design resampling attribute about 90% of GPT-5 mini's map variance to paper content. Eight domain experts selecting from the same blinded panels under the same cap show no comparable shared preference, while model concentration persists in selection-only mode. Even when every reference is real and every paper is equally visible, current language models impose a common content-level filter on scientific attention. Equalizing retrieval or mixing vendors is therefore insufficient; the shared preference map itself must be changed.

大模型引用分析偏见检测AI伦理

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