Check if your references are real
Every verdict from database records. No AI deciding results. Not found means check it yourself.
Paste your reference list or upload a file. PerfectRefs searches Crossref, OpenAlex, and DataCite for each reference and shows which works it found and which need a closer look.
Existence check on 10 references free every day, reset at 16:00 UTC
01LeCun, Y., Bengio, Y., & Hinton, G. (2015). Deep learning. Nature, 521(7553), 436–444. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature14539
Verified02Hinton, G. E., & Salakhutdinov, R. R. (2006). Reducing the dimensionality of data with neural networks. Science, 313(5786), 504–509.
Volume/issue/pages differDOI missing03Mnih, V., Kavukcuoglu, K., Silver, D., Graves, A., Antonoglou, I., Wierstra, D., & Riedmiller, M. (2013). Playing Atari with deep reinforcement learning. In NIPS Deep Learning Workshop.
Conference unconfirmedConference appears only in the preprint's author Comments note.
04Graduate School Office. (2016). Academic integrity workshop report [Unpublished internal report].
Not foundNot found in public databases. This entry may be fabricated or not indexed. We recommend checking it manually.
When to check
A chatbot gave you references
A reference can look complete (authors, year, journal, DOI) and still describe a paper that doesn't exist. Or the DOI is real but belongs to another paper. An Existence check shows which references match a real record.
Hallucinated Citations: Why AI References Can't Be FoundBefore you submit to a journal
Run a Style check against APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago 18 (author-date), IEEE, or Vancouver. Wrong or missing authors, years, pages, or DOIs appear next to the record's value; click Accept and replace to fix each one. Nothing else in your list changes.
Desk Rejection: Can Your Reference List Cause It?Editorial Manager says "Not validated"
The journal system couldn't match the reference to an online record. That's normal for books, theses and reports. For a journal article, it's worth a check, not proof of an error. PerfectRefs shows whether a matching record exists and links to it.
Reference "Not Validated" in Editorial Manager: What to DoEvery verdict has a source.
Each field is compared with public scholarly databases: authors, title, year, volume, issue, pages, DOI and more. Open the source behind any verdict to check it yourself.
Who checks their references with PerfectRefs
Four roles, one question: is each reference real?
Check AI-suggested references before your supervisor does
Trust a reference just because it looks complete
Fix wrong fields before you submit
Submit a DOI that points to another paper
Check the thesis reference list before signing off
Read "Not found" as proof of fabrication
Screen submissions for references that don't exist
Treat unindexed books or theses as fake
Find out which of your references are real
Paste your list or upload .docx, .bib, .ris, .enw, or .txt.
New accounts also get 10 premium credits, enough for a Style check on 5 references