A Springer Nature book on machine learning has come under scrutiny after researchers discovered that many of its citations were fabricated or erroneous.

A review of 18 citations in Mastering Machine Learning: From Basics to Advanced revealed that two-thirds either referenced nonexistent papers or misattributed authorship and publication sources.

Several academics whose names were included in the book confirmed they did not write the cited material, while others noted inaccuracies in where their actual work was supposedly published. One researcher was alerted by Google Scholar to multiple fake citations under his name.

Govindakumar Madhavan, the author, has not confirmed whether AI tools were used in producing the content, though his book discusses ethical concerns around AI-generated text.

Springer Nature has acknowledged the issue and is investigating whether the book breached its AI use policies, which require authors to declare AI involvement beyond basic editing.

The incident has reignited concerns about publishers' quality control, with critics pointing to the increasing misuse of large language models in academic texts. As AI tools become more advanced, ensuring the integrity of published research remains a growing challenge for both authors and editors.