CliniPaperFree reference checker: find fake, wrong and AI-invented references
Paste your reference list and each reference is matched against Crossref, the registry of DOIs for scholarly articles. Real references come back verified; references with a wrong year, author, volume, pages or DOI are flagged with the published details in AMA style; references with no matching record are marked not found, which is how invented citations from chatbots usually show up.
What does the reference checker look for?
| Result | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Verified | A published record matches the title, year and first author. | Nothing, unless your journal needs a different style. |
| Found, details differ | The paper exists, but the year, first author, volume, pages or title in your reference do not match it. | Copy the published record and reformat it in your journal's style. |
| Wrong DOI | The DOI does not exist or belongs to a different paper, a common sign of an AI-generated reference. | Replace the DOI with the correct one shown, or remove the reference. |
| Not found | No matching record in Crossref. | Search PubMed and the publisher. If you cannot find the source, do not cite it. |
Why check references written with AI?
Chatbots can produce references that look complete and do not exist, and journals hold the authors responsible for every citation. Elsevier asks authors to disclose AI help with references, and JAMA asks authors not to use AI to generate them at all. See how to write an AI disclosure statement.
How do I format the corrected references?
Corrections are shown in AMA style, used by JAMA and many clinical journals. For other journals, follow the AMA citation style guide or the Vancouver referencing guide, and check your target journal's author instructions.
Frequently asked questions
How do I check if a reference is real?
Look it up by DOI or title in Crossref or PubMed and compare the authors, title, journal, year, volume and pages. This tool does the Crossref step for a whole list at once. If a reference has no matching record, search PubMed and the journal site before you conclude it does not exist.
Why do AI chatbots invent references?
Language models generate text that looks like a citation without looking anything up, so they can produce plausible authors, titles and DOIs for papers that were never published, or attach a real DOI to the wrong paper. Every AI-assisted reference list needs checking against a bibliographic database before submission.
What does "Wrong DOI" mean?
The DOI in your reference does not exist, or it belongs to a different paper. When the rest of the reference matches a real article, the tool shows that article with its correct DOI.
Does "Not found" always mean the reference is fake?
No. Crossref covers most journal articles but not every book, report, guideline, website or older paper. Treat "not found" as "verify by hand": check PubMed, the publisher or the issuing organisation, and remove the reference if you cannot find the source.
Is my reference list stored?
No. The check runs in your browser and sends each reference only to Crossref to find a match. Nothing is saved by CliniPaper.
Can it check that a reference supports my sentence?
Not this free tool: it confirms that a reference exists and its details are right. CliniPaper's full manuscript check also reads each cited source against the sentence citing it and recomputes the numbers in your abstract and tables.
Results come from Crossref records and an automatic match; confirm anything flagged before you change or remove a reference. For the full check of references, numbers and methods, see AI manuscript review.