AI tools are good at producing references that look right. The journal is real, the authors work in the field, and sometimes the DOI even resolves. It just goes to a different paper. Formatting checkers don't catch this, and checking every reference by hand is slow.
What CiteWise does
Paste a citation, a DOI or an incomplete reference. CiteWise looks it up in Crossref, DataCite, OpenAlex, Semantic Scholar, PubMed and arXiv, then shows field by field what matches the source records and what doesn't.
- Flags real DOIs attached to the wrong paper, and authors, years or journals that don't match the published record
- Works without a DOI: a title, authors and year are usually enough
- If a source is down, it says the check is incomplete instead of calling the reference "not found"
- A reference it can't match is reported as unconfirmed, not fake
- Checks whether a matched paper has a retraction, correction or expression of concern on Crossref
What's new
- Each result now shows how complete the check was and which sources answered
- Exact lookups for PMIDs and arXiv IDs
- Bibliography audits from pasted text, BibTeX, RIS, EndNote or CSL-JSON, with export to HTML, CSV or JSON
Who it's for
Students and researchers checking their bibliography before submission, especially after using AI for a literature review. Also supervisors, editors and reviewers checking someone else's reference list.
Free plan: 10 checks a month, no credit card.