Reference "Not Validated" in Editorial Manager: What to Do

In Editorial Manager, "Not validated" next to a reference means the system's automatic reference check could not match that reference to an online record. It does not mean the reference does not exist. Only journal articles are checked, so "Not validated" next to a book, chapter, thesis, conference paper, report, standard, web page, policy document, or preprint is normal. For a journal article, there are two possible reasons: the source is not indexed in Scopus, PubMed, or Crossref, or the reference contains an error (Elsevier, n.d., 2025).

If you just submitted your manuscript and saw this label, the steps below will help you decide whether you need to do anything.

How the reference check works

Editorial Manager is the submission system used by Elsevier and other publishers. After you upload your manuscript as a Word file, the system extracts your reference list. While it builds the submission PDF, it looks for an online record of each journal article. The result is a report made for the editor, and some journals also show it to reviewers. Journals can set the report to show links to Scopus, Crossref, and PubMed, and some journals show the results to authors too (Elsevier, n.d.).

The results page that authors can see says "Results produced by MaRS (Machine Learning Reference Service)" and includes this note:

"Reference checking is done for journal citations. If the journal citation has a Scopus or CrossRef link, it has been validated. If 'Not validated' is displayed, the citation could not be validated and is probably not a journal citation." (Elsevier, n.d.)

To match a reference, the system uses the authors, journal title, article title, year, volume/issue, and pages. How the reference is formatted does not matter (Elsevier, n.d.).

Step 1: Is it a journal article?

Only journal articles are checked. Books, book chapters, theses, conference papers, reports, standards, web pages, policy documents, and preprints are outside the check (Elsevier, n.d.). If one of these is marked "Not validated," that is expected. You can submit it as it is.

This includes arXiv preprints, even when you give a DOI. Since 2022, arXiv has registered DOIs for new papers with DataCite (prefix 10.48550), so arXiv DOIs are not in Crossref (arXiv, 2022).

Step 2: For a journal article, rule out an error

Elsevier's help page advises correcting errors so they do not delay later publishing steps (Elsevier, 2025). To check a flagged journal reference:

1. Open the article's page on the publisher's website.
2. Compare each field in your reference with that page: authors, journal title, article title, year, volume, issue, and pages.
3. If your reference has a DOI, paste it into doi.org. This opens the page the DOI is registered to, so you can also see whether the DOI itself is correct.

Typical slips include:

• misspelled author names
• volume and issue swapped
• a wrong page range
• a wrong digit in the DOI

Step 3: Check the layout in Word

If every field matches and the reference is still "Not validated," check that the reference is a single paragraph in your Word file. To extract references correctly, the system needs three things (Elsevier, n.d.):

• The manuscript is a Word file.
• The references are under a heading such as "References" or "Bibliography."
• Each reference is its own paragraph.

If a reference is merged with the previous one, or split into two paragraphs by a line break, the system cannot extract it correctly. Fix the layout and upload the file again.

Step 4: Correct references that stay "Not validated"

Some correct journal references still cannot be matched. If you have checked the fields and the layout, submit these references as they are. Common reasons are listed below.

The journal is not in Scopus, Crossref, or PubMed (Elsevier, n.d.). For example, some journals register DOIs with agencies other than Crossref. To see which agency registered a DOI, put the DOI prefix (the part before the slash) after `https://doi.org/ra/`. For example, https://doi.org/ra/10.3969 shows ISTIC, a Chinese registration agency (DOI Foundation, n.d.).

Key fields are missing. Matching relies on fields such as article title, volume, issue, and pages. Your citation style may leave out article titles. Or the article may have just been published online and does not have a volume, issue, or pages yet (Elsevier, n.d.).

How to upload a corrected file

1. Make your changes in Word.
2. Use "Edit Submission" to upload the new file and rebuild the PDF. The reference check runs again when the PDF is rebuilt.
3. Check the results before you click "Approve."

After you click "Approve," you can no longer change the submission unless the editor sends it back to you. References are processed again when you submit a revision (Elsevier, n.d.).

"Not validated" is not the same as "does not exist"

"Not validated" only means the system could not match the reference. A reference to a paper that does not exist is a much more serious problem. At ACL 2026, reviewers "identified many non-existent references which led to those submissions being desk rejected." The organizers later "identified over 100 papers that contained citations to non-existent literature" among accepted papers (ACL 2026, n.d.).

So the real question is not whether a reference says "Validated." The question is whether each reference points to a real publication and describes it correctly.

Check your reference list with PerfectRefs

PerfectRefs checks your reference list before or after you submit. Paste your reference list. You do not need to upload the paper.

• Existence check looks up each reference in Crossref, OpenAlex, and other scholarly databases. It flags references it cannot find. It comes with a free daily allowance.
• Style check compares authors, journal, volume/issue/pages, and DOI field by field with the database record. It shows the record's version with a source link, and you can accept the fix with one click. Style check uses premium credits (2 per reference). New accounts get 10 premium credits.

FAQ

Will my paper be rejected because some references are "Not validated"?

Elsevier's help page does not say that a flagged reference leads to rejection. It advises correcting errors so they do not delay later publishing steps (Elsevier, 2025). The report is made for the editor, and some journals also show it to reviewers (Elsevier, n.d.). A reference to a paper that does not exist is a different matter: at ACL 2026, such references led to desk rejections (ACL 2026, n.d.).

Do I need to fix every "Not validated" reference?

No. Books, chapters, theses, conference papers, reports, standards, web pages, policy documents, and preprints are not checked, so you can submit them as they are. For journal articles, check for errors and layout problems. If the reference is correct, you can submit it as it is (Elsevier, n.d., 2025).

Why is my arXiv reference "Not validated" even though it has a DOI?

The check only covers journal articles, and preprints are outside it. Also, arXiv registers DOIs with DataCite (prefix 10.48550), not Crossref (arXiv, 2022).

Will changing my citation style fix "Not validated"?

How a reference is formatted does not matter for matching. The system uses the authors, journal title, article title, year, volume/issue, and pages (Elsevier, n.d.). However, if your style leaves out article titles, the system has less information to match on.

Can I fix references after I submit?

Before you click "Approve," you can use "Edit Submission" to upload a corrected file, and the check runs again. After you approve, you cannot change the submission unless the editor sends it back. References are processed again when you submit a revision (Elsevier, n.d.).