citation-verification

Files (9)

• SKILL.md
• README.md · references/
• api-usage.md · references/
• common-errors.md · references/
• verification-rules.md · references/
• README.md · scripts/
• api-clients.py · scripts/
• format-checker.py · scripts/
• verify-citations.py · scripts/

SKILL.md (first lines)

# Citation Verification Reference Guide

A reference guide for citation verification in academic paper writing, providing verification principles and best practices.

**Core Principle**: Proactively verify every citation during the writing process using WebSearch and Google Scholar.

## Core Problems

Citation issues in academic papers seriously impact research integrity:

1. **Fake citations** - Citing non-existent papers (common issue with AI-generated citations)
2. **Incorrect information** - Mismatched authors, titles, years, etc.
3. **Inconsistent formatting** - Mixed citation formats
4. **Missing citations** - Referenced but uncited work

These issues can lead to:
- Paper rejection or retraction
- Damage to academic reputation
- Reviewers questioning research rigor

**Special risk with AI-assisted writing**: AI-generated citations have approximately 40% error rate; every citation must be verified via WebSearch.

## Verification Principles

This skill provides verification principles based on WebSearch and Google Scholar:

### 1. Proactive Verification (Verify During Writing)

**Core idea**: Verify immediately when adding a citation, rather than checking after writing is complete.

- Search for the paper via WebSearch each time a citation is needed
- Confirm the paper exists on Google Scholar
- Add to bibliography only after verification passes

### 2. Google Scholar Verification

**Why Google Scholar**:
- Most comprehensive academic literature coverage
- Provides citation count (credibility indicator)
- Directly provides BibTeX format
- Free and no API required

**Verification steps**:
1. WebSearch query: `"site:scholar.google.com [paper title] [first author]"`
2. Confirm the paper appears in results
3. Check citation count (abnormally low counts may indicate issues)
4. Click "Cite" to get BibTeX

### 3. Information Matching Verification

**Information that must match**:
- Title (minor differences allowed, e.g., capitalization)
- Authors (at least the first author must match)
- Year (±1 year difference allowed, considering preprints)
- Publication venue (conference/journal name)

### 4. Claim Verification

**Key principle**: When citing a specific claim, you must confirm the claim actually appears in the paper.

- Use WebSearch to access the paper PDF
- Search for relevant keywords
- Confirm the accuracy of the claim
- Record the section/page where the claim appears

## Verification Workflow

### Integration into Writing Process

```
Need a citation during writing
    ↓
WebSearch to find the paper
    ↓
Google Scholar to verify existence
    ↓
Confirm paper details
    ↓
Get BibTeX
    ↓
(If citing a specific claim) Verify the claim
    ↓
Add to bibliography
```

**Key point**: Verification is part of the writing process, not a separate post-processing step.

## Usage Guide

### Using with ml-paper-writing

The verification principles of this skill are integrated into the Citation Workflow of the `ml-paper-writing` skill.

**Auto-trigger**: Citation verification is automatically executed when writing papers with the ml-paper-writing skill.

**Manual reference**: Refer to this skill when you need detailed verification principles.

### Verification Step Example

**Scenario**: Need to cite the Transformer paper

```
Step 1: WebSearch lookup
Query: "Attention is All You Need Vaswani 2017"
Result: Found multiple sources for the paper

Step 2: Google Scholar verification
Query: "site:scholar.google.com Attention is All You Need Vaswani"
Result: ✅ Paper exists, 50,000+ citations, NeurIPS 2017

Step 3: Confirm details
- Title: "Attention is All You Need"
- Authors: Vaswani, Ashish; Shazeer, Noam; Parmar, Niki; ...
- Year: 2017
- Venue: NeurIPS (NIPS)

Step 4: Get BibTeX
- Click "Cite" on Google Scholar
- Select BibTeX format

From Vepricov/claude-brainlab, MIT.

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