Free reference checker
Check if a citation is real
Paste your reference list. We look up each reference in Crossref, then OpenAlex, and show the closest record with a link you can open, so you can check it yourself.
No sign-up. Your references are sent to Crossref and OpenAlex as searches and are not saved.
How to read the results
Each result shows the closest record we found and how it compares with your reference: how similar the titles are, whether the year agrees, and whether the first author's name appears in what you pasted. These describe the match. They are not a judgment of your source.
- Close match
- A record with nearly the same title, and its first author and year line up with your reference. Open it and compare the authors, year, journal and pages.
- Partial match
- Something similar exists, but the title, year or first author differ. A typo, another edition, or a reference that mixes details from more than one paper can all look like this.
- No close match found
- Neither database has a record that looks like this reference. Plenty of real sources are missing from both, so search your library catalog or Google Scholar before you decide.
What a match does not tell you
A match tells you a record with that title exists. It does not tell you the source says what your sentence says. Open the source and read the part you cite, especially for references an AI tool suggested. Title similarity compares the words in two titles and nothing more.
For a step-by-step routine with worked examples, read How to check whether AI-generated citations are real.