Citation Verification

• You are writing academic or research papers and need to confirm that cited works actually exist and contain the claims you are attributing to them.
• You are using AI assistance for paper writing and want to guard against hallucinated or fabricated references.
• You need a step-by-step verification workflow to check author names, titles, years, and publication venues against Google Scholar.
• You are working alongside the ml-paper-writing skill and want detailed citation verification principles available for manual reference or auto-triggered checks.

• You only need general writing assistance unrelated to citations or academic references.
• Your workflow already has a dedicated, automated citation management system with live database lookups and you do not need additional guidance principles.

Verification is treated as part of the writing process itself, not a post-processing step. Every citation is searched and confirmed via WebSearch and Google Scholar at the moment it is added, preventing errors from accumulating.

Each citation is confirmed on Google Scholar using a structured query pattern. Citation count is used as a credibility indicator, and BibTeX entries are retrieved directly from the 'Cite' button to ensure formatting accuracy.

The skill checks that title, first author, year (±1 year for preprints), and publication venue all match the located source. Minor acceptable differences (e.g., capitalization) are distinguished from genuine mismatches.

When citing a specific claim or statistic, the skill guides retrieval of the paper PDF via WebSearch to confirm the claim actually appears in the source, with the relevant section or page noted.

When a citation cannot be verified, the skill instructs marking it explicitly as [CITATION NEEDED] and notifying the user with a clear reason — rather than guessing or fabricating missing information.

The verification principles defined in this skill are designed to be integrated into the Citation Workflow of the ml-paper-writing skill, enabling automatic verification triggers during paper composition.

When an AI assistant produces a reference list, this skill provides the workflow to check each citation against Google Scholar and WebSearch before it enters the bibliography, catching the ~40% of AI-generated citations that contain errors.

As an author adds a citation mid-draft, the skill's step-by-step workflow guides immediate lookup, existence confirmation, detail matching, and BibTeX retrieval so the bibliography stays accurate throughout the writing session.

When a paper attributes a specific finding or statistic to a reference, the skill directs the author to access the source PDF and verify the claim is genuinely present, preventing misattribution or misquotation.

When a cited paper cannot be found or details do not match, the skill provides a structured resolution process — checking spelling, trying alternative queries, distinguishing preprint vs. published versions, and clearly marking any citation that remains unresolved.