SKILL.md
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 programmatic or canonical scholarly sources first: arXiv, DOI/CrossRef, Semantic Scholar, publisher landing pages, and Zotero metadata. Google Scholar is useful for manual discovery, but it is not the canonical verification authority.
Core Problems
Citation issues in academic papers seriously impact research integrity:
- Fake citations - Citing non-existent papers (common issue with AI-generated citations)
- Incorrect information - Mismatched authors, titles, years, etc.
- Inconsistent formatting - Mixed citation formats
- Missing citations - Referenced but uncited work
These issues can lead to:
- Paper rejection or retraction
- Damage to academic reputation
- Reviewers questioning research rigor