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Nature Reference Verifier

Cross-checks academic references field by field against Crossref and other sources, then reports errors.

Source Download skill
Repository
Yuan1z0825/nature-skills
Stars
51,827
Licence
Apache-2.0
Files
6 files

What it does

Once installed, the agent checks the bibliography of a paper, thesis or proposal entry by entry. It tests each DOI against Crossref, compares authors, title, year, volume, issue and pages against other sources such as IEEE Xplore, web search and CNKI/Wanfang, and grades mismatches as critical, warning or info. It then produces a report with a Verified / Check suggested / Needs fix / Unverifiable status per reference, plus optional corrected BibTeX and Zotero update instructions.

Great for

  • Researchers checking references before submitting a paper or thesis
  • Students preparing a proposal who want a final citation check
  • Anyone responding to reviewer comments about citation errors
  • Librarians or lab members maintaining a Zotero library

Skip it if

  • Writing new references from scratch, since it verifies existing entries rather than generating them
  • Fields where sources are unavailable or internal, such as unpublished reports, because results will often be Unverifiable
  • Situations needing guaranteed accuracy without human review, because the skill itself says some differences need manual judgment

Try asking

  • “verify references: check all 56 references in my paper draft and give me a table of problems”
  • “校验文献：只检查这一条 DOI 10.1109/4.482157 是否对应正确的论文”
  • “Check references in this BibTeX file and output a corrected .bib patch”
  • “核对参考文献并同步修正我 Zotero 库中错误的条目”
Step-by-step guide: how to use Nature Reference VerifierInstall, first run, examples, tips and FAQs

Install in 3 steps

  1. 1

    Download the skill

    The ZIP contains the 6 original files, the Apache-2.0 licence and an attribution note.

    nature-ref-verifier.zip
  2. 2

    Add it to your agent

    Claude Code (all projects)

    mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && unzip nature-ref-verifier.zip -d ~/.claude/skills/

    Claude Code / Agent SDK (this project only)

    mkdir -p .claude/skills && unzip nature-ref-verifier.zip -d .claude/skills/

    Claude apps (web/desktop): Settings → Capabilities → Skills → Upload skill, and choose the ZIP.

  3. 3

    Ask for the task

    No special command needed — the agent reads the skill's description and loads it when your request matches. Try one of the prompts above.

Get better results

  • Give the agent the full reference list or a .bib file, and batch over 20 items to speed up checks.
  • Review every Needs fix and Check suggested item yourself, since Warning-level differences can be legitimate such as Early Access updates.
  • Confirm the entries exist in your Zotero library before asking for writes; the skill notes that the local Zotero API is read-only and direct database edits are a last resort.

What's inside

  • agents/openai.yaml
  • manifest.yaml
  • README_EN.md
  • README.md
  • references/common-patterns.md
  • SKILL.md

Redistributed unmodified from Yuan1z0825/nature-skills under the Apache-2.0 licence. The assessment was drafted with AI from the skill's files on 2026-10-29. Skills can instruct your agent to run code — read SKILL.md and any scripts before installing.