RefCheck Academic Citation Verifier

Batch-verify the existence and consistency of paper references, saving advisors from checking Google Scholar one by one

Problem

When students use AI to write papers, references get fabricated along with the text. Some citations simply don't exist, or the DOI, title, author, and year don't match each other while still looking plausible. Advisors must copy dozens of references one by one into Google Scholar to confirm existence and cross-check authors, journals, years, and DOIs—excruciating when a whole class submits at once.

Solution

Paste references or upload PDF/DOCX/BibTeX/RIS/EndNote/LaTeX files, batch-compare against Crossref and other academic databases, flag 'non-existent', 'metadata-mismatched', and 'suspicious AI-generated' citations, and produce a report with links to original sources.

Users

University advisors, graduate students, journal editors, thesis reviewers

MVP

Support pasting plain text and uploading BibTeX/PDF; call Crossref API to compare title, author, year, DOI per reference; output 'pass/questionable/non-existent' with source links; export a shareable verification report; focus only on references, not AI-writing detection

Revenue

Pay-per-check (e.g. $1.5 for 50 references) or monthly advisor subscription; department-level licensing

Why now

AI-written papers have flooded academia with fake citations, making advisors' verification burden explode; open APIs like Crossref let a solo developer ship without owning a database