nature-ref-verifier — Cross-Source Verification Skill for Academic References
Trigger Words
Applicable Scenarios
- Perform final verification on all references before submitting a proposal report/thesis
- Precisely locate issues when reviewer comments point out citation errors
- Batch verify validity when migrating references from old projects to new papers
- Regular health checks for Zotero libraries
Workflow
Step 1: Parse Input
Supports three input formats:
A. Entire Paper/Proposal Report
- Extract all reference lists numbered
- Automatically identify DOI for each entry (if available)
B. Single Reference Entry
- Users directly paste a single citation text
- Or pass a Zotero item key
C. BibTeX File
- Directly parse files and verify entry by entry
Step 2: Multi-Source Parallel Query
For each literature entry, query the following sources in parallel (availability depends on environment configuration):
| Source | Applicable Literature | Typical Coverage Rate |
|---|
| Crossref | Foreign journals with DOI | ~70% (Older IEEE literature and Chinese journals are often missing) |
| IEEE Xplore | IEEE journals/conferences | Alternative when IEEE DOI returns 404 |
| WebSearch (Bing/Google) | Literature without DOI or missing sources | Fallback solution |
| CNKI/Wanfang (kimi-datasource / webbridge) | Chinese journals, dissertations | Must-check for Chinese literature |
| Zotero Local Library (zotero-mcp) | Already imported literature | Fast comparison with existing data |
Query Strategy: Prioritize DOI-based search on Crossref, downgrade to title+author web search if failed.
Step 3: Field-Level Comparison
Execute the following comparison matrix for each literature entry, categorized into three levels by severity:
🔴 Critical (Must Correct)
| Check Item | Description | Typical Case |
|---|
| Inconsistent author names/order | Different first author, reversed order, completely fabricated | Smogavec→Leckebusch, Vainikainen→Mikhnev |
| Page number difference ≥5 | Page numbers do not match at all | Noon: 1309-1319→1444-1449 |
| Inconsistent core title keywords | Not case/punctuation differences | Iwasaki T→Wu K H, Zhang W→Zhu M H |
| DOI points to a different paper | DOI exists but title/author do not match | Abidi 1995: 10.1109/4.482157→10.1109/4.482187 |
🟡 Warning (Suggested Check)
| Check Item | Description | Typical Case |
|---|
| Volume year ≠ DOI year | Year of volume attribution does not match the year in DOI number | Dadrass Volume 2025/Online 2024, Ni Volume 2022/DOI contains 2020 |
| Missing/excess author middle names | "Rabiner L" vs "Rabiner L R" | Generally does not affect retrieval |
| Missing issue number | Script has volume but no issue | Smogavec 2025: 17→17(10) |
| Page number deviation ≤4 | Minor differences | Leckebusch 15-24→15-25 |
| Differences in publisher name writing | "IET" vs "IEE" | Historical name changes |
🟢 Info (For Reference Only)
| Check Item | Description |
|---|
| Different title capitalization | Title Case vs Sentence case |
| Journal name abbreviation vs full name | "IEEE Trans. AES" vs "IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems" |
| Punctuation/conjunction differences | "and" vs "&", etc. |
Step 4: Confidence Assessment
A comprehensive confidence level is assigned to each literature entry:
| Level | Meaning |
|---|
| ✅ Verified | Consistent across multiple sources, no modification needed |
| ⚠️ Check suggested | Contains 🟡 level differences, requires manual judgment |
| ❌ Needs fix | Contains 🔴 level differences, must be corrected |
| ❓ Unverifiable | Cannot be found in all sources (e.g., internal reports, old dissertations) |
Step 5: Output Report
Supports the following output formats:
Markdown Summary Report:
markdown
## Verification Results: 56 References
- ✅ Verified: 42
- ⚠️ Check suggested: 8
- ❌ Needs fix: 4
- ❓ Unverifiable: 2
### ❌ Needs Fix
|---|-------|---------------|---------------|--------|
| [6] | Author Error | Smogavec P | Leckebusch J | Wiley |
| [42] | Reversed Author Order | Vainikainen P… | Mikhnev V A… | IEEE |
### ⚠️ Suggested Check
|---|-------|---------|
| [18] | Volume Year/DOI Year Conflict | Volume year 2025, DOI year 2024 |
BibTeX Patch: Directly generate corrected
file content.
Zotero Update Commands: Generate executable
command list for batch correction of Zotero libraries.
Cross-Source Validation Strategy
text
┌─────────────┐
│ User Input │
│ DOI/Title │
└──────┬──────┘
│
▼
┌─────────────┐
│ Field Split │
│ author/title │
│ year/vol/pg │
└──────┬──────┘
│
┌──────────────┼──────────────┐
▼ ▼ ▼
┌──────────┐ ┌──────────┐ ┌──────────┐
│ CrossRef │ │ IEEE │ │ WebSearch│
│ (DOI) │ │ Xplore │ │ (Bing/GG)│
└────┬─────┘ └────┬─────┘ └────┬─────┘
│ │ │
▼ ▼ ▼
┌──────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Field-level Comparison + Rating │
│ author / title / year / vol / issue │
│ pages / DOI / journal │
└────────────────┬─────────────────────┘
│
▼
┌────────────────┐
│ Confidence Eval│
│ ✅ ⚠️ ❌ ❓ │
└────────────────┘
Known Limitations and Solutions
| Limitation | Solution |
|---|
| Chinese DOIs not in Crossref | Downgrade to CNKI/Wanfang (via webbridge or WebSearch) |
| Older IEEE literature DOI returns 404 | Search directly on IEEE Xplore (its DOI is not registered in Crossref) |
| Dissertations without DOI | Verify title+author+year via CNKI / Wanfang / ProQuest |
| Product manuals/patents | Do not verify metadata, only confirm source accessibility |
| Some literature not found on Google Scholar | Switch search engines (Bing, Baidu Scholar, Semantic Scholar) |
Environment Dependencies
The following tools are optional; enable if available, downgrade otherwise:
- / : Zotero library read/write
- (scholar): Academic search
- : CNKI query with login status
- Basic WebSearch / FetchURL: Universal fallback