Confirm the source’s identity
Open the publisher or issuing organization’s page and compare title, authors, date and publication details with the citation. For scholarly material, a DOI can help identify the work. Crossref provides lookup options using bibliographic information. Not every legitimate source has a DOI, and an identifier alone does not establish quality.
Check what you actually accessed
Distinguish an abstract, a full paper, a preprint and a later published version. Verify whether the passage you need is available in the material you read. If only a summary is accessible, do not attribute detailed methods or numerical results that it does not contain. Record access limits rather than inventing missing metadata.
Verify that the citation supports the claim
Read around the relevant passage and compare its scope with the report’s sentence. Check population, time period, units and the direction of the finding. A citation about one setting cannot automatically support a universal recommendation. Separate a source’s measured result from the report author’s inference.
- Locate the supporting passage.
- Check quantities and qualifications.
- Look for corrections or version changes where relevant.
- Revise or remove claims that the source does not support.
Review after the report is edited
Humanizily Research Agent keeps sources alongside the report and supports conversational revisions. After changing a claim, reopen its source and check the connection again. Formatting can be fixed separately from evidentiary support. Inspect the exported references and links before sharing so readers receive the evidence trail you reviewed.
Worked example
Starting point
A citation points to a study about one small team, while the report says all organizations benefit.
Suggested wording or approach
Narrow the sentence to the setting studied, describe its limitations, or find stronger evidence for a broader claim.
Illustrative audit decision. A real citation does not justify extending a finding beyond its evidence.
Common questions
Is a working DOI enough?
No. It helps identify a work; you still need to check the source and the claim it supports.
What if a source has no DOI?
Use its official page, bibliographic details and other identifiers where appropriate.
Can the citation format be correct while the claim is wrong?
Yes. Formatting and evidentiary support are separate checks.
Further reading
Start with a focused research brief
Define your question, review the outline and check the evidence before sharing the report.
Open the Research AgentHow the agent works