Skip to content
Back to skills

Validate Bib

ASecurity

Validate bibliography entries against citations in all lecture files. Structural checks (missing/unused entries, malformed fields) by default; `--semantic` adds citation-drift detection, DOI verification, and style-consistency checks.

  • 1,597 stars
  • 0 votes
  • 0 copies
  • 0 views
  • Added June 11, 2026
researchbashgitapi

Works with

  • api

Security analysis

A100/100

Scanned June 11, 2026

npx -y skills add pedrohcgs/claude-code-my-workflow --skill validate-bib --agent claude-code

Installs into .claude/skills of the current project.

Are you the author of Validate Bib?

Add the live security badge to your README. It updates with every re-scan.

Security grade badge for Validate Bib
[![Security: A — Skills Directory](https://www.skillsdirectory.com/api/skills/pedrohcgs-validate-bib/badge)](https://www.skillsdirectory.com/skills/pedrohcgs-validate-bib)

More formats (shields.io, HTML) on the badges page. Keep it an A: scan every change in CI with Pro.

Download with Pro
SKILL.md
---
name: validate-bib
description: Validate bibliography entries against citations in all lecture files. Structural checks (missing/unused entries, malformed fields) by default; `--semantic` adds citation-drift detection, DOI verification, and style-consistency checks.
argument-hint: "[--semantic] [--skip-doi] [--cite-claim]"
allowed-tools: ["Read", "Grep", "Glob", "Write", "Bash", "WebFetch"]
---

# Validate Bibliography

Cross-reference citations in lecture files against bibliography entries. Two modes:

- **Default (structural):** missing entries, unused entries, malformed fields, typo candidates.
- **`--semantic`:** adds citation-drift detection (duplicate entries for the same paper), DOI verification via crossref, and citation-style consistency within each file.

Report saved to `quality_reports/bib_audit_[structural|semantic].md`.

## Mode 1: Structural (default)

### Steps

1. **Read the bibliography file** and extract all citation keys.

2. **Scan lecture files for citation keys:**
   - `.tex`: `\cite{`, `\citet{`, `\citep{`, `\citeauthor{`, `\citeyear{`, `\textcite{`, `\parencite{`
   - `.qmd` / `.md`: `@key`, `[@key]`, `[@key1; @key2]`
   - Extract all unique citation keys used.

3. **Cross-reference:**
   - **Missing entries (CRITICAL):** cited in lectures, absent from `.bib`.
   - **Unused entries (informational):** in `.bib` but never cited.
   - **Typo candidates:** keys within edit-distance 2 of a `.bib` key (e.g., `Smith2020` vs `Smth2020`).

4. **Check entry quality:**
   - Required fields present (author, title, year, journal/booktitle).
   - Author field properly formatted.
   - Year in 1900–current.
   - No malformed characters / encoding issues.
   - `doi` field normalized (no leading `https://doi.org/`).

5. **Write report** to `quality_reports/bib_audit_structural.md`.

### Files scanned

```
Slides/*.tex
Quarto/*.qmd
guide/*.qmd
master_supporting_docs/**/*.tex
```

### Bibliography location

`Bibliography_base.bib` at repo root by default; override via CLAUDE.md.

## Mode 2: Semantic (`--semantic`)

Everything in Mode 1, plus:

### 2a. Citation drift detection

Multiple `.bib` entries describing the same paper under different keys. Symptoms:

- `Smith2020` + `Smith2020a` with identical DOI or title.
- `CallawaySantAnna2021` + `CS2021` both pointing to the same paper.
- Collaborator-merged `.bib` files.

**Detection heuristics (any → FLAG):**

| Check | Signal |
|---|---|
| Same DOI across keys | Hard-duplicate (CRITICAL) |
| Same title (case-insensitive, punct-stripped) | Likely duplicate (CRITICAL) |
| Same author+year+journal | Probable duplicate (MEDIUM) |
| Title Jaccard > 0.85 on tokens ≥ 4 chars | Soft-duplicate (LOW) |

For each flagged pair: list both keys, where each is cited, and recommend a canonical key (prefer most-cited, then alphabetically first).

### 2b. DOI verification (optional; network)

For each entry with a `doi`, fetch `https://api.crossref.org/works/{doi}` and compare:

- First-author last name
- Year
- Title (Jaccard > 0.7 on normalized tokens)
- Container-title / journal (exact or abbreviation)

**Severity:**

- Author or title mismatch → CRITICAL (wrong paper)
- Year mismatch → MEDIUM (preprint vs published, or typo)
- Journal mismatch → LOW (legitimate preprint variants)

**Rate limit:** cap 50 lookups per run, 0.5s delay between calls. Cache in `quality_reports/.doi_cache.json`.

**Opt-out:** `--skip-doi` for offline or no-WebFetch environments.

### 2c. Style consistency within each file

For each file, count citation commands (`\citet` vs `\citep` vs `\cite`; `@key` vs `[@key]`). FLAG files with mixed styles without an obvious pattern (e.g., 20× `\citep` and 3× `\cite` in the same deck). Low-severity.

### 2d. Cite-claim sanity (flag-only)

Gated behind `--cite-claim`. For the top-10 most-cited works per file, WebFetch the crossref abstract and surface it beside the in-text context. **No auto-judgment** — humans decide if the claim matches.

> **This is existence/structure, not appropriateness.** Deciding whether the cited paper *actually says* what the in-text claim attributes to it is [`/verify-claims`](../verify-claims/SKILL.md)'s job — it reads the source and grounds a supports / partial / contradicts verdict in quotes + pages (with the EXPLAINED escape for a defensible named alternative). `--cite-claim` only surfaces the abstract; for the verdict, run `/verify-claims`.

### Report structure (`quality_reports/bib_audit_semantic.md`)

```markdown
# Bibliography Semantic Audit

**Date:** YYYY-MM-DD
**Bibliography:** Bibliography_base.bib (N entries)
**Files scanned:** [list]

## Summary

| Check | Critical | Medium | Low |
|---|---|---|---|
| Structural | | | |
| Citation drift | | | |
| DOI verification | | | |
| Style consistency | 0 | 0 | |

## Critical Issues

### Duplicate entries
| Keys | Signal | Citations | Recommended canonical |
|---|---|---|---|

### DOI mismatches
| Key | Field | .bib value | crossref value |
|---|---|---|---|

## Medium / Low issues
…

## Next steps
1. Resolve duplicates — pick canonical key, update citations, remove orphans.
2. Fix DOI mismatches — verify paper in crossref or strip the wrong DOI.
3. Review style-consistency notes.
```

## Exit behavior

- **Structural:** exit 0; report enumerates issues.
- **Semantic:** exit 0 if only LOW findings; exit 1 on any CRITICAL. Usable as a pre-submission gate.

## Cross-references

- `.claude/skills/review-paper/SKILL.md` — pair for full pre-submission.
- `.claude/skills/audit-reproducibility/SKILL.md` — numeric-claims counterpart.
- `.claude/skills/verify-claims/SKILL.md` — citation **appropriateness** counterpart (does the cited paper support the claim?). This skill checks that a citation *exists and is well-formed*; `/verify-claims` checks that it *holds*.

## What this skill does NOT do

- Judge whether a citation is used in the right *context* — whether the cited paper actually *says* what the claim attributes to it. That is `/verify-claims`'s job (see 2d); this skill stays existence-and-structure only.
- Auto-fix your `.bib` file — all edits are recommendations.
- Check non-DOI identifiers (ISBN, arXiv, SSRN) — roadmap.

Attribution

Is this your skill, or is something wrong with this listing? Request removal or report an issue. Author removals are honored within 72 hours.

Comments

Loading comments…

Newsletter

Get the weekly list of safe new skills, and the ones we pulled.