Citation Verifier

Local First Pass

Start with a local citation scan before any online verification.

The helper script:

python ~/.codex/skills/citation-verifier/scripts/scan_citations.py path/to/file_or_dir [...]

Use it to find:

• [CITATION NEEDED] or similar placeholders
• PLACEHOLDER_... citation keys
• TODO: verify markers
• DOI, arXiv, and PMID tokens
• LaTeX \cite{...} keys
• duplicate BibTeX keys inside .bib files

Treat imported BibTeX and Google Scholar-style exports as draft metadata, not as verified truth.

Verification Order

1. Scan the local draft and bibliography artifacts.
2. Remove or flag all placeholder citations.
3. Check BibTeX-key uniqueness and obvious identifier gaps.
4. Normalize metadata fields that are commonly wrong in copied BibTeX:
   • author list and spelling
   • year
   • venue or journal name
   • volume, issue, pages, or article number
   • DOI versus preprint identifier
5. For every citation that matters to a scientific claim, verify the paper exists in trusted sources.
6. If a claim depends on a specific result, confirm the cited paper actually supports that claim.
7. Only then finalize formatting for the venue.

Trusted Verification Sources

Prefer this order when moving beyond local scans:

• publisher page or DOI resolver
• PubMed for biomedical papers
• arXiv for preprints
• Crossref or Semantic Scholar for metadata cross-checking
• Google Scholar only as a fallback discovery aid, not as the sole source of truth

Common Failure Modes

• writing BibTeX from memory
• leaving placeholder citation keys in the draft
• assuming an arXiv preprint and published version are interchangeable
• citing a paper correctly but using it to support a claim it does not make
• letting duplicate BibTeX keys silently overwrite entries
• blindly trusting copied Scholar or BibTeX metadata for venue names, pages, years, or DOI fields

Output Standard

When using this skill, report:

• placeholder or unverifiable items
• duplicate or suspicious BibTeX keys
• missing or inconsistent DOI/arXiv/PMID information
• suspicious metadata fields that need manual correction
• claims that still need source verification
• the minimum safe next step before submission