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Verify Citation

verifyCitation
Read-onlyIdempotent

Verify a claimed citation against the resolved record at its identifier. Detects the dominant AI-driven fabrication pattern documented by Topaz et al. (Lancet 2026): a real, resolvable identifier (DOI / PMID / PMCID / arXiv / etc.) paired with a title that does NOT correspond to the paper at that identifier. Use when the user pastes a citation and asks 'is this real?' or 'check this DOI' — most fabricated citations resolve cleanly under doi.org but their cited title and the resolved title disagree. Single citation per call. Required: title plus exactly one identifier (doi, pmid, pmcid, isbn, arxiv, issn, ads, or whoIrisUrl). Optional refinements: author (first-author family name), year, container (journal). Set screenWithLlm: true to invoke the Stage 3 LLM screen on low-confidence mismatches (catches informal-abbreviation false positives); LLM access is gated to authenticated first-party keys and paid RapidAPI tiers — anonymous callers get 400 LLM_SCREEN_FORBIDDEN. Returns: { verdict: 'matched' | 'mismatch' | 'not_found' | 'ambiguous', confidence: 'high' | 'medium' | 'low', matched: , mismatches: [{field, claimed, resolved, similarity}], candidates: [{item, registries, score}] (when title-search ran), provenance: {stages_run, resolved_via, registries_searched, llm_screen} }. Verdict semantics: 'matched' = claim agrees with resolved record; 'mismatch' = identifier resolves but title does not match (Topaz fabrication pattern); 'ambiguous' = identifier resolves to one paper but the claimed title matches a DIFFERENT paper found via title-search (CITADEL 'citation error' subtype — wrong identifier for a real paper); 'not_found' = neither the identifier nor the title resolves anywhere. No sibling tool overlaps: resolveIdentifier returns metadata for a known-good identifier; verifyCitation is the only tool that cross-checks claimed title vs resolved metadata. Read-only and idempotent — safe to retry. Works anonymously for the non-LLM path; the Stage 3 LLM screen requires authentication — set SCHOLAR_API_KEY (a free ssk key from https://scholar-sidekick.com/account) or use a paid RapidAPI tier. SCHOLAR_API_KEY also raises your rate limit.

Input Schema

TableJSON Schema
NameRequiredDescriptionDefault
adsNoNASA ADS bibcode (19 chars).
doiNoDOI as cited (with or without https://doi.org/ prefix). Provide whichever identifier(s) the cited reference carries; the verifier uses the first one in priority order doi > pmid > pmcid > arxiv > ads > isbn > issn > whoIrisUrl.
isbnNoISBN (10- or 13-digit, hyphens tolerated).
issnNoISSN for journal-level resolution.
pmidNoPubMed ID as cited (digits only, or with 'PMID:' prefix).
yearNoPublication year as cited. Wrong year alone does not flip the verdict, but >=2-year gap from the resolved record lowers confidence.
arxivNoarXiv ID (e.g. '2301.08745' or 'arXiv:2301.08745'; old-style 'hep-ph/0501023' accepted).
pmcidNoPubMed Central ID (e.g. 'PMC1234567' or 'PMCID:1234567').
titleYesThe title as it appears in the cited reference. This is the field the verifier cross-checks against the resolved record at the supplied identifier. Required.
authorNoFirst-author family name as cited. Refines the verdict — a title-vs-resolved-title match plus an author mismatch raises suspicion of fabrication. Pass only the family name (e.g. 'Topaz', not 'Topaz, Maxim').
containerNoJournal or container name as cited (e.g. 'The Lancet', 'Neuroscience'). Soft signal — surfaced as a mismatch field but does not gate the verdict.
whoIrisUrlNoWHO IRIS URL (https://iris.who.int/...).
screenWithLlmNoOpt-in Stage 3 LLM screen. Fires only when the pre-LLM verdict is mismatch with low confidence (the informal-abbreviation false-positive bucket). Gated: requires an authenticated first-party API key or a paid RapidAPI tier; anonymous / free callers receive 400 LLM_SCREEN_FORBIDDEN. Default false.
semanticTitleNoOpt-in semantic title check (any tier). On a string-level matched verdict, a calibrated model judgment of whether the claimed and resolved titles describe the same work; catches one-word swaps in long titles that string similarity misses. A flagged title moves matched → ambiguous (review), never mismatch. Not byte-deterministic — _provenance.semantic_title carries the probability. Default false.

Output Schema

TableJSON Schema
NameRequiredDescriptionDefault
matchedNoThe resolved record at the identifier, or null on not_found.
verdictNo
candidatesNo
confidenceNo
mismatchesNo
_provenanceNo

Schema Changelog

Changes observed during successful MCP inspections.

  1. Changed1 schema field changed
    • addedInput schema / properties / semanticTitle
      Added value: +{
      +  "description": "Opt-in semantic title check (any tier). On a string-level matched verdict, a calibrated model judgment of whether the claimed and resolved titles describe the same work; catches one-word swaps in long titles that string similarity misses. A flagged title moves matched → ambiguous (review), never mismatch. Not byte-deterministic — _provenance.semantic_title carries the probability. Default false.",
      +  "type": "boolean"
      +}
  2. First observed

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