diff --git a/backend/utils/_tests/test_github.py b/backend/utils/_tests/test_github.py
index 7cab458e3..4d068f43f 100644
--- a/backend/utils/_tests/test_github.py
+++ b/backend/utils/_tests/test_github.py
@@ -59,4 +59,4 @@ def test_valid_citation(self):
     def test_invalid_citation(self):
         citation_str = """Ha? What is this?"""
         citations = get_citations(citation_str)
-        assert citations['citation'] is None
+        assert citations is None
diff --git a/backend/utils/github.py b/backend/utils/github.py
index dea81d8a0..735c5b7fe 100644
--- a/backend/utils/github.py
+++ b/backend/utils/github.py
@@ -105,7 +105,9 @@ def get_github_metadata(repo_url: str) -> dict:
 
     citation_file = get_file(repo_url, "CITATION.cff")
     if citation_file is not None:
-        github_metadata['citations'] = get_citations(citation_file)
+        citation = get_citations(citation_file)
+        if citation:
+            github_metadata['citations'] = citation
 
     if 'visibility' not in github_metadata:
         github_metadata['visibility'] = 'public'
@@ -127,11 +129,11 @@ def get_github_metadata(repo_url: str) -> dict:
     return github_metadata
 
 
-def get_citations(citation_str: str) -> Dict[str, Union[str, None]]:
+def get_citations(citation_str: str) -> Union[Dict[str, str], None]:
     """
     Get citation information from the string.
     :param citation_str: citation string to parse
-    :return: citation dictionary with parsed citation of different formats
+    :return: citation dictionary with parsed citation of different formats, None if not valid citation
     """
     try:
         citation = Citation(cffstr=citation_str)
@@ -143,7 +145,7 @@ def get_citations(citation_str: str) -> Dict[str, Union[str, None]]:
         }
     except ValueError:
         # invalid CITATION.cff content
-        return dict.fromkeys(['citation', 'RIS', 'BibTex', 'APA'], None)
+        return None
 
 
 def get_artifact(url: str, token: str) -> Union[IO[bytes], None]: