Refcheck
Verify citations and bibliographies from agent-drafted research before you publish papers, posts, or technical docs.
Overview
refcheck is a MCP server for the Idea phase that verifies academic citations against scholarly databases and exports BibTeX.
What is this MCP server?
- Verifies citations against real scholarly databases
- Surfaces hallucinated or mismatched references before publication
- Exports verified references to BibTeX
- Optional keys for Crossref polite pool, Semantic Scholar, Elsevier, IEEE
- PyPI package refcheck-mcp v0.1.0 with stdio transport
- Server version 0.1.0 on PyPI identifier refcheck-mcp
- Transport: stdio
- Environment variables documented: CROSSREF_EMAIL, S2_API_KEY, ELSEVIER_KEY, ELSEVIER_INSTTOKEN, IEEE_API_KEY
What problem does it solve?
LLM-generated bibliographies look credible but often contain hallucinated papers you only catch after peer review or publish embarrassment.
Who is it for?
Solo researchers, technical writers, and students using agents to draft papers who need database-backed citation checks before shipping content.
Skip if: Builders who never cite academic sources, or teams that already use a dedicated reference manager with no MCP workflow.
What do I get? / Deliverables
After install, you can validate references via MCP, reject bad citations early, and export BibTeX from checks that matched real records.
- Database-backed citation validation results
- Identification of invalid or suspect references
- BibTeX export for verified citations
Recommended MCP Servers
Journey fit
Idea and research is where you validate sources and literature before committing writing or product claims to print. Research subphase matches cross-database citation verification and hallucination detection for academic references.
How it compares
Citation verification MCP backed by Crossref and optional publisher APIs, not a writing-style or brainstorming skill.
Common Questions / FAQ
Who is Refcheck for?
Anyone using MCP agents to draft research, theses, or citation-heavy docs who must confirm references exist in Crossref, Semantic Scholar, or publisher catalogs.
When should I use Refcheck?
Use it during Idea research and before publishing Build-phase documentation whenever an agent produced a reference list or inline citations.
How do I add Refcheck to my agent?
Install Refcheck-mcp from PyPI (v0.1.0), set CROSSREF_EMAIL and any optional API keys, register the server as stdio in your MCP client, then invoke verify tools per the Refcheck repository.