A citation is useful when someone can connect a claim to the evidence supporting it. A pile of links at the bottom of an answer makes that work harder.
Place evidence near the claim
Attach source controls to the statement they support. Use a concise label that identifies the source, and keep the link destination visible or easy to inspect. A source preview should not cover the sentence being checked.
Design the source view
Offer a readable title, publisher when known, and a direct link. If you show an excerpt, preserve its context and avoid implying that the excerpt alone proves the claim. Mark unavailable or outdated material when known.
Handle missing evidence
State when the system cannot ground a claim. Do not generate citations that were never retrieved. A citation’s existence does not guarantee its relevance; a user still needs a way to inspect it.
Verify the interaction
Use the keyboard to open and close the source view. Test long titles, broken destinations, multiple claims sharing one source, and narrow screens. Confirm that the destination supports the nearby claim.