Verify Citation

verifyCitation

Cross-checks a claimed citation (title, plus optional authors/year/container and one identifier) against the metadata resolved from that identifier. Catches the dominant fabrication pattern documented by Topaz et al. (Lancet, 2026): a real, resolvable DOI paired with an invented title and authors.

resolveIdentifier alone never catches this — it returns whatever the registry has for the identifier. verifyCitation is the only tool that compares the claim against reality.

When to use

• A user pastes a citation from an LLM transcript and asks "is this real?"
• An agent is auditing references in a manuscript draft for hallucinations.
• A reviewer wants to flag suspected fabricated citations before submission.

Inputs

Wrap the citation fields inside a claimed object (one citation per call):

• claimed (object, required):
  • title (string, required) — the title exactly as cited.
  • one identifier — doi, pmid, pmcid, isbn, arxiv, issn, ads, or whoIrisUrl.
  • authors (array, optional) — [{ "family": "...", "given": "..." }]; sharpens the verdict.
  • year (number, optional); container (string, optional — the journal or book title).
• options (object, optional) — e.g. { "bypassCache": true }.

Outputs

{
  "ok": true,
  "verdict": "matched" | "mismatch" | "not_found" | "ambiguous",
  "confidence": "high" | "medium" | "low",
  "matched": { "...": "the resolved CSL item, when one was found" }
}

• matched — the claim agrees with the record at the identifier.
• mismatch — the identifier resolves but the title does not (the fabrication pattern; flag it clearly).
• ambiguous — the identifier resolves to one paper but the claimed title matches a different real paper (a wrong-identifier error, not a fabrication).
• not_found — neither identifier nor title resolves anywhere.

Every produced verdict returns 200 OK — the verdict is the answer, not a failure. 4xx/5xx are reserved for protocol errors.

Underlying surfaces

• REST: POST /api/verify with { "claimed": { … } }. One citation per call.
• Web UI: /tools/citation-verifier.
• MCP tool: verifyCitation in scholar-sidekick-mcp v0.7.0+.

Example

curl -sS -X POST "https://scholar-sidekick.com/api/verify" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"claimed":{"title":"The title exactly as cited","doi":"10.1038/nphys1170","authors":[{"family":"Verlinde"}],"year":2011}}'

See also

• checkRetraction for retraction status (different concern — fake vs. retracted).
• /citation-integrity for the broader trust surface.