BibTeX Reference Checker

Verify authenticity and correctness of references in BibTeX files using web search.

Workflow

1. Parse .bib file and extract all entries
2. For each entry, verify using web search tools
3. Check authenticity (does the paper exist?)
4. Check correctness (is the citation info accurate and up-to-date?)
5. Report issues and suggest fixes

Verification Process

Step 1: Parse BibTeX Entry

Extract key fields:

• title – Paper title
• author – Author names
• year – Publication year
• booktitle / journal – Venue
• doi – Digital Object Identifier
• url – Link to paper
• eprint / arxivId – arXiv identifier

Step 2: Web Search Verification

Use fetch_webpage tool to query these sources:

1. Google Scholar: Search title + first author
2. DBLP (dblp.org): Authoritative CS bibliography
3. Semantic Scholar (semanticscholar.org): Academic search
4. arXiv (arxiv.org): For preprint verification
5. DOI resolver (doi.org): Verify DOI links

Search query construction:

"[exact paper title]" [first author last name] [year]

Step 3: Authenticity Checks

Red flags for fake references:

• No search results for exact title
• Conference/journal has no web presence
• Author has no other publications
• DOI doesn’t resolve

Step 4: Correctness Checks

Common Update Patterns

arXiv to Conference

% Before (incorrect)
@article{smith2023,
  title = {Some Paper},
  author = {Smith, John},
  journal = {arXiv preprint arXiv:2301.12345},
  year = {2023}
}

% After (correct)
@inproceedings{smith2023,
  title = {Some Paper},
  author = {Smith, John},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of NeurIPS},
  year = {2023},
  doi = {10.xxxx/xxxxx}
}

arXiv to Journal

% Before
@misc{doe2022,
  title = {Another Paper},
  author = {Doe, Jane},
  eprint = {2201.00001},
  archivePrefix = {arXiv}
}

% After
@article{doe2022,
  title = {Another Paper},
  author = {Doe, Jane},
  journal = {Nature Machine Intelligence},
  volume = {4},
  pages = {123--135},
  year = {2022},
  doi = {10.1038/s42256-022-00001-1}
}

Output Report Format

=== BibTeX Verification Report ===

[✓] smith2023: "Deep Learning Methods" - Verified (NeurIPS 2023)

[!] jones2024: "Neural Networks Study"
    Issue: arXiv preprint has been published
    Current: @article with journal = {arXiv preprint arXiv:2401.xxxxx}
    Found: Published at ICML 2024
    Suggested fix: Update to @inproceedings with booktitle = {ICML}

[✗] fake2023: "Amazing Results Paper"
    Issue: Paper not found in any database
    Action: Verify this reference manually - may not exist

[!] wang2022: "Transformer Architecture"
    Issue: Author name mismatch
    Current: author = {Wang, John}
    Found: author = {Wang, Jun}

Summary:
- Total entries: 25
- Verified: 20
- Needs update: 3
- Suspicious: 2

Verification Priority

Check in this order (most reliable first):

1. DOI – If present, resolve and verify
2. DBLP – Authoritative for CS papers
3. Semantic Scholar – Good coverage across fields
4. Google Scholar – Broadest coverage
5. arXiv – For preprints

Handling Edge Cases

• Workshop papers: May not appear in DBLP, verify via conference website
• Thesis citations: Search university repository
• Technical reports: Search organization website
• Non-English papers: Search with original language title
• Very recent papers: May only be on arXiv, note as “preprint – check later”

Interactive Fixing

When updating entries:

1. Show current entry
2. Show verified information from web
3. Display proposed changes as diff
4. Apply fixes while preserving BibTeX key and custom fields