Should a document extraction API return source citations?
Yes. Source citations help reviewers and downstream systems understand where each extracted field came from in the original document.
Short answer
Yes. Source citations help reviewers and downstream systems understand where each extracted field came from in the original document.
What this means in practice
A document extraction API with source citations can point each value to a page, region, line, clause, table row, or source document in a packet. The citation should travel with the extracted field, not live only in a separate viewer.
Citations are especially useful for contracts, claims, KYC packets, underwriting files, and any workflow where a wrong value needs to be explained later.