A citation with an author, year and link can look ready to paste into your assignment. Before using it, answer two questions: Does the document exist? Does it actually support the sentence the AI wrote? A working link answers neither question on its own.
This guide was checked on September 8, 2026. It focuses on finding original documents and recording what you can verify. For a broader review of numbers, context and conclusions, see our guide to checking AI answers.
1. Separate the claim from the citation
Copy the precise sentence that needs evidence. Separately record the title, authors, year, journal or institution, and DOI if supplied. If you only have a link, open it and find these details. Leave missing fields blank rather than guessing.
You can ask an assistant to organize those fields, but treat its output as a checklist. Another confident answer is not independent verification. Start with the source supporting your most important conclusion.
2. Search by title and author
Search for the title in quotation marks. If that fails, combine a distinctive part of the title with the first author's surname. If the title was translated, look for the original-language title as well.
For academic material, Crossref Metadata Search supports searches using titles, authors, DOIs and complete references. Compare the result with the journal or institution's own page. An unsuccessful database search does not establish that a work is fabricated: mark it not located while you investigate.
3. Check what the DOI identifies
A DOI is a persistent identifier. Enter it in the DOI Foundation resolver to reach the registered destination. Compare the title, author list and year on that page with the citation you received.
Our editorial rule: a valid DOI helps establish identity; it is not a quality badge or proof that the AI interpreted the work correctly. If it opens a different paper, flag the mismatch. If it fails, check for copying errors and search the responsible institution before calling the citation fake.
4. Worked example: real paper, unsupported claim
Consider this fictional sentence written solely for this exercise: “A 2013 Dunlosky study proves that any AI-generated quiz improves grades by 40%.” Do not repeat it as a research finding.
A real 2013 paper by John Dunlosky and colleagues is titled Improving Students’ Learning With Effective Learning Techniques. Its DOI is 10.1177/1529100612453266. Check its identity on the Association for Psychological Science page. The association's report overview describes a review of ten learning techniques.
That establishes the reference's existence, not the fictional claim about “any AI-generated quiz” or “40%”. To use a percentage, locate the passage and establish what was measured and under which conditions. Without that evidence, remove the number and promise instead of bending the source to fit the answer.
If you are preparing practice questions, our guide to studying with quizzes can help structure the exercise. Checking source material and the answer key remains a separate step.
5. Read the supporting passage
Read the abstract and, where needed, the full text. Find the cited term, table or section. Record its page or section and read the surrounding context. Distinguish the authors' conclusion from a hypothesis or a discussion of someone else's study.
If the article is paywalled, look for a version legally shared by its institution or authors. When only the abstract is available, restrict your conclusion to what it establishes. Do not claim to have checked the full text. Our guided study walkthrough offers a way to work through material step by step.
A prompt for organizing the review
> List each verifiable claim separately with its reference. Give the original title, authors, year and link. Leave missing fields unfilled. Flag anything you could not verify. For each claim, identify the supporting source passage and distinguish a direct quotation from a paraphrase.
This organizes the task; you still need to open the source. Keep a record of claim, reference, passage located and decision. Useful decisions include “confirmed”, “source exists but does not support the sentence” and “not located”.
When to stop searching
If the title, author and institution do not lead to a verifiable document, remove the reference or explicitly leave the claim unresolved. Do not substitute a link merely because it covers the same topic. A short bibliography of traceable documents you have read is more useful than a long list you cannot defend.
Once you locate the source, learn how to summarize a PDF with AI and check omissions to preserve tables, conditions, and limitations from the original document.