DOI resolved
In Source Check, the DOI leads to a record. This does not confirm the rest of your citation. The field comparison highlights possible discrepancies in title, author and year.
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Source Check: verify references and DOIs
The Source Check looks up each reference individually in Crossref and shows the metadata it found: DOI, title, authors, year, and any correction or retraction notice attached to the record. A match identifies a candidate record; compare its title, authors and year with your entry. It says nothing about whether the work is any good, or whether you have cited it correctly in your argument.
Example of conflicting citation details
Watson & Crick (2024). Molecular structure of nucleic acids. DOI: 10.1038/171737a0
DOIPoints to a publication record
ResolvedPublication yearRecord: 1953 · Your input: 2024
ReviewNext stepOpen the original publication and correct the year.
Paste your bibliography
One reference per line
Reading the result
What each Source Check status means
Search candidate
Source Check displays a possible candidate returned by Crossref whose similarity was not high enough for an automatic assignment. Open the record yourself before you change anything in your bibliography.
Notice
Source Check flags records carrying metadata about a correction, an update or a retraction. That is a signal to go to the publisher's page and find out what happened before you keep citing the work.
Why this is worth ten minutes
How Source Check helps you find reference errors
Source Check helps identify errors that accumulate in reference lists: a year copied from the wrong edition, an author initial dropped by a reference manager, a DOI that belongs to a different article in the same issue, a preprint cited as if it were the published version.
None of that is misconduct. All of it makes your work harder to verify — and a marker who cannot follow a citation to its source has a reason to doubt the claim resting on it.
The most consequential case is a retraction. Citing a retracted paper as current evidence is a substantive error in the argument, not a formatting slip, and it is exactly the kind of thing a metadata check surfaces early.
What this tool does not do
- It does not assess the quality or relevance of a source
- It does not check whether your citation style is correct
- It does not find sources you failed to cite — that is what the plagiarism check is for
- It does not cover works without a Crossref record, including many books, reports and web pages
Need more than metadata?
The Submission Check combines source verification with plagiarism and AI analysis. If you already have a report and cannot tell which findings matter, a person can go through it with you.
Reference → record → review
A correct DOI can still accompany an incorrect citation.
A mistyped year or a DOI copied from another paper can survive a quick bibliography check. Source Check keeps your original entry visible and compares the title, first author surname and supplied years separately. It does not silently replace your citation with a search result.
- Paste one complete reference per line. A DOI retrieves its associated record. Without one, a bibliographic search returns a candidate that you must identify yourself.
- Review each field. “Found in text” describes a text comparison. Unconfirmed fields remain visible. Online and print publication years may legitimately differ; check which version you cited.
- Open the original and save your review. Follow the DOI link and inspect the publisher record. Download the CSV to keep your input, returned metadata, notes and check time together.
Using the result responsibly
Does “no record” mean a source is fabricated?
No. Source Check uses Crossref, which is not a complete catalogue of books, websites, archival material or research data. Check spelling and the DOI, then search the publisher, library or relevant registration agency. A service outage is reported separately and says nothing about the source.
What does the tool send to Crossref?
Your Source Check DOI or bibliographic search is sent through our server to Crossref. The tool does not create a product database of your entries. Paste references only, without confidential text or personal notes. Website processing is described in the privacy policy.
Does this check whether the source supports my argument?
No. After using Source Check, you still need to read the original passage, its context and the page you cite. Metadata lookup does not establish scientific quality, correct interpretation or citation-style compliance. The retrieval method follows the Crossref API documentation.