Keep the suggested citation unchanged
Save the bibliographic entry supplied by the AI answer and the statement it supposedly supports. You need both: a real publication can exist while being unrelated to the generated claim. Do not silently correct a title or year before recording what the answer provided.
Use publicly shareable bibliographic information. You do not need to upload a private manuscript, an unpublished reference list or personal correspondence to perform a focused lookup.
Submit a reference for matching
Crossref’s Simple Text Query accepts references for articles, books and chapters. Its documentation recommends one reference per line, with a blank line between separate references. It describes a Submit action and an option to list all possible DOIs for a reference. Source
For one questionable citation, start with that entry alone. Preserve the exact submitted text. If a visible typo can be checked against an accessible publisher record, record the correction separately before another attempt.
This task uses reference lookup. It does not require registering a DOI or depositing metadata into Crossref.
Compare competing records
Crossref explains that the system attempts one DOI match, but incomplete metadata or multiple candidates can prevent a single match. Its multiple-results option requires the reader to evaluate the returned candidates. Source
| Field | Compare against the suggested entry | Keep unresolved when |
|---|---|---|
| Title | Exact wording and subtitle | Only the general subject matches |
| Authors | Names listed for the work | A common surname is the only match |
| Publication | Journal, book or chapter container | A similarly named publication differs |
| Date and edition | Stated year and version | The records point to different versions |
| DOI | Identifier returned for the inspected record | You have only a plausible-looking string |
A candidate with a related title is not automatically the cited work. An illustrative bibliography could combine the title of one paper with the year of another. Keep those observations separate rather than constructing a new citation and attributing it to the AI answer.
Check the claim after locating the work
Open an accessible publisher or repository record and inspect the relevant text when available. Record exactly what you could read. If only an abstract is accessible, do not imply that you reviewed methods or results hidden in the full text.
No match is a retrieval outcome for that entry and service; it is not by itself proof that no publication exists. Likewise, a DOI match does not certify the study’s quality or the truth of a generated conclusion.
Finish with one of three states: a work identified and a passage checked; a possible work with unresolved differences; or no usable match from this lookup. Carry that status into the AI source-review checklist. Do not fill a missing reference with a fabricated DOI.