What does the citation checker actually check?
It compares the claims in your review to the papers you selected during synthesis. Claims that match paper content score stronger; claims without clear source support get flagged for human review.
Citation verification
Check every citation in your literature review before anyone else does
Fluent AI text can make weak citations look convincing. LitSynth scans your review against the papers you selected and flags exactly which claims need a closer look — before your advisor, reviewer, or reader finds them.
Editable workflow
From research question to a review you can inspect
Each stage stays visible, so you can revise the scope or evidence choices before generating again.
- 1
Generate or import a review draft from your selected papers.
- 2
Open the citation checker to scan claims against sources.
- 3
Review flagged passages and weak-citation warnings.
- 4
Edit, re-check, and export when confidence is high.
Best for
- Checking a draft before sharing with advisors or reviewers
- Spotting claims that sound plausible but lack paper support
- Building confidence that your citations match what you intended to cite
Not a replacement for
- Replacing subject-matter expertise on whether a claim is correct
- Guaranteeing that a citation supports every nuance of a complex claim
Facts on this page
- Scan
- Per claim
- Score
- Confidence tiers
- Fix
- Iterate
every assertion is checked against selected paper pool
strong / moderate / needs-review labels per passage
edit and re-check until citation coverage looks solid
Limits stated on this page
- Citation checking flags evidence coverage, not factual accuracy of the paper itself.
- Strong citation support does not guarantee the cited paper is methodologically sound.
- Always read critical source papers yourself before relying on generated checks.
Keep evidence decisions visible
LitSynth treats AI as support for a review process. You keep control of which papers enter the evidence set and which claims need another check.
Scan your review and see which claims have paper backing.
Get a citation strength score per section of your draft.
Identify exact passages that need source verification.
Re-check after edits to confirm fixes are in place.
Questions researchers ask
Is it the same as citation audit?
They overlap. Citation audit is a deeper, post-generation review (often for systematic reviews). Citation checker is lighter-weight, designed for quick per-section checks before sharing a draft.
Can it catch hallucinated citations?
Yes — that is the main point. If a claim in your review cannot be traced to any of your selected papers, the checker flags it so you can fix or remove it.
Should I check citations before or after editing?
Both. Check after generation to catch the biggest issues. Then edit, and check again before exporting. The workflow supports iterative review.
Continue your research workflow
Build the review, then revise any step
Search papers, screen the evidence, generate a cited draft, and return to earlier decisions whenever the scope needs to change.
Start your review