Citation integrity
Check a citation before it becomes evidence.
SolveUnit Scholar separates each reference, resolves identifiers first, then compares titles, authors, years, venues and DOIs across five scholarly databases. Weak matches stay visibly uncertain.
Reviewed by SolveUnit Scholar Research Team on .
A verification result you can audit
- Extract each citation and normalize DOI, arXiv and PMID identifiers.
- Compare important fields across every available scholarly record.
- Return verified, mismatched, possible, incomplete or not-found without hiding uncertainty.
What citation hallucination looks like
Invented combinations
A real author and real journal may be combined with a title that was never published.
Metadata drift
The paper exists, but the year, author order, volume, pages or DOI are inaccurate.
Wrong-source support
A citation may be real while the paper does not support the claim beside it. Identity checking is the first step; reading the source is still required.
Overconfident formatting
Perfect APA formatting does not prove that the source exists. Record verification comes before citation styling.
Five scholarly databases
Crossref
Publisher-deposited DOI and journal metadata.
OpenAlex
Broad scholarly graph coverage across works, authors and venues.
Semantic Scholar
Independent paper identity and author metadata.
PubMed
Biomedical publication records and PMID lookup.
Europe PMC
Life-science records, identifiers and open-access links.
A real paper with the wrong year
Submitted: Lopez-Otin et al. (2012). The Hallmarks of Aging. Cell, 153(6). DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2013.05.039.
Result: Metadata mismatch: the DOI and title identify a real paper, but the submitted year is wrong and the page range is missing.
Matched record: Lopez-Otin et al. (2013). The Hallmarks of Aging. Cell, 153(6), 1194-1217.
What this check cannot prove
- Books, theses, very old works and some regional publications may have incomplete database coverage.
- A not-found result means unverified, not automatically fabricated.
- A verified citation confirms record identity, not study quality, relevance or claim support.
Frequently asked questions
How does SolveUnit Scholar detect a hallucinated citation?
It compares identifiers and important metadata fields with records returned by Crossref, OpenAlex, Semantic Scholar, PubMed and Europe PMC. A weak or conflicting match is not promoted to verified.
Does “not found” mean the reference is fake?
No. Database coverage is incomplete for some publication types and languages. Treat the reference as unverified and check a library catalogue, publisher site or subject index.
Can a real citation still be used incorrectly?
Yes. Record verification confirms that the publication exists and the metadata matches. You must still read the source to confirm that it supports the claim.
Primary sources
- Crossref REST API documentation
- OpenAlex API documentation
- Semantic Scholar Academic Graph API
- NCBI PubMed developer resources
- Europe PMC REST API
A careful result
No match is reported as no match. SolveUnit Scholar does not turn a weak search result into a verified citation, and a verified record does not prove that the paper supports a particular claim.