Bib audit

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Generated from blueprint.yaml. Do not edit this block by hand.

Catalog: research; topics: scholarly-documents, research-writing; visibility: featured Activation: user-request, skill-workflow; persistent modifier: no

Skill Version: 2

Uses Interfaces:

• bib-audit.source.gateway -> bib-audit._rtx.interface.scripts-bib-similarity@1
• bib-audit.source.gateway -> bib-audit._rtx.interface.scripts-bib-validate-bibtex@1

Public Interfaces:

• bib-audit.interface.default

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Generated from blueprint.yaml. Do not edit this block by hand.

Instruction Interfaces:

These interfaces are documented prompt surfaces. They are not executed through dispatcher:

• bib-audit.interface.default — Primary LLM-facing skill instructions.

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Bibliography Audit

Conservative bibliography auditor. Default behavior: produce a structured report. Apply transformations only on explicit user approval.

Invocation

Ask for:

1. The .bib file (required).
2. Accompanying .tex project files (optional; enables backend inference and project-aware citation rewrites).
3. House style preferences (optional).

Backend inference — when .tex files are provided, scan the preamble and infer the backend before proceeding:

Signal (in preamble)	Backend
\usepackage{biblatex} or \usepackage[...]{biblatex}	biblatex + Biber
\addbibresource{...} (without explicit \usepackage{biblatex})	biblatex + Biber
\usepackage{natbib}	BibTeX + natbib
\bibliographystyle{...} + no natbib/biblatex package	BibTeX (plain)

If multiple .tex files are provided, check the root/main file first. If signals conflict or are absent, ask the user. If no .tex files are provided, ask the user for the backend directly.

Global rules

• Reports before transformations. Default behavior is a report with suggested actions, no file edits.
• Optional steps require explicit user approval. Never perform citation-key standardization, aggressive formatting, duplicate merging, or project-wide rewrites without approval.
• Citation-key changes are project-aware when .tex files are provided.
  • old → new: update all \cite{old} → \cite{new}.
  • Merged y → x: replace y citations with x; deduplicate citation commands.
  • Entry deleted without replacement: check for citations, ask before proceeding.
• Do not infer destructive changes from missing information. If a tool report lacks a clear replacement or merge target, ask or leave for manual review.
• Warn before key changes when no .tex files are provided.

Workflow

Step 1 — Local validity and formatting

biblatex + Biber

biber --tool --validate-datamodel <file.bib>

Produces <basename>_bibertool.bib (normalized output) and <basename>.blg (log). Parse the .blg log; map ERROR/WARN/INFO prefixes directly to the audit classification.

1a. Report all log entries: duplicate keys, missing required fields (biblatex spec), malformed entries, unknown fields, malformed author/DOI/year/page fields.

1b. Diff original .bib against <basename>_bibertool.bib. Report differences in field ordering, field-name casing, indentation, page-range dashes, title capitalization, author/journal/publisher formatting, DOI/URL/arXiv formatting, citation-key style. Infer dominant style from the file; do not impose a universal one.

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BibTeX + natbib

Do not run biber --tool — it uses biblatex field names (journaltitle, date) and will spuriously flag valid BibTeX fields (journal, year).

Use scripts-bib-validate-bibtex to validate the file. Output is JSON. Read parse_errors first (file-level failures), then entries[*].issues. Each issue has level (ERROR/WARNING/INFO), field, and message.

1a. Report all ERRORs and WARNINGs. Required fields are checked against the BibTeX spec (e.g. @article needs author, title, journal, year — not journaltitle/date).

1b. No normalized reference output is available. Read the file directly and report style inconsistencies: field-name casing (BibTeX convention: lowercase), field ordering within entries, indentation and spacing, page-range dashes, title brace-protection, citation-key style.

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Optional — citation-key standardization (both backends): Offer four choices: (1) preserve existing keys, (2) report inconsistencies only, (3) standardize .bib only, (4) standardize .bib and update .tex. Warn if no .tex files are provided.

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Step 2 — External metadata verification (bibtex-check)

Install via pip install bibtex-updater. Run:

bibtex-check <file.bib> --report report.json --non-generative --mailto <your-email> --verbose

• --non-generative disables LLM calls; use it for reproducibility and policy compliance.
• --mailto registers a contact address with CrossRef/OpenAlex polite pools; improves rate limits.
• --skip-books, --skip-working-papers skip entry types that rarely resolve externally.
• If the tool fails or times out on an entry, mark it UNVERIFIED and continue; note which entries could not be checked.

Per-entry: read status (see mapping below), field_comparisons (has entry_value/api_value/similarity_score/matches per field), and best_match.doi (for Step 3 cross-reference). Top-level summary has aggregate counts.

Map status to audit classification:

Tool status	Audit classification
verified	VERIFIED
partial_match	PROBABLE MATCH
not_found, unconfirmed, preprint_only	UNVERIFIED
title_mismatch, author_mismatch, year_mismatch, venue_mismatch, arxiv_id_mismatch, doi_mismatch, hallucinated	CONFLICT
doi_not_found	CONFLICT — DOI is present but does not resolve; likely fabricated or mistyped
published_version_exists	UNVERIFIED — flag for Step 3 (a published version was found; use bibtex-update to upgrade). Note: bibtex-check may instead return verified for a preprint that resolves via arXiv even when a published version exists — the similarity script may catch such version pairs that this status misses.
api_error	UNVERIFIED — note that lookup failed

Do not treat UNVERIFIED as fake. Books, unpublished manuscripts, lecture notes, older works, and private drafts may be real even when no external match is found.

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Step 3 — Duplicate and version audit

Use scripts-bib-similarity to get a ranked candidate list. Output JSON: each pair has score (0–1), confidence (EXACT/HIGH/MEDIUM/LOW), and per-field signals (doi/eprint/isbn identifier match, title/author/year/venue soft scores). EXACT = shared identifier; treat as definite duplicate. Threshold 0.3 is loose by design — use the list as a checklist, not a verdict.

Known limitation: arXiv IDs in howpublished/note/url free text are extracted as a fallback, but prefer eprint field for reliable identifier matching.

Cross-check with Step 2: if two entries share the same best_match.doi, treat them as EXACT regardless of what the script reported. Skip entries with status not_found or unconfirmed when doing this cross-check — their best_match.doi may be a spurious near-hit, not a confirmed match. Flag any entry with published_version_exists status as a version-pair candidate.

For each candidate pair (or group), determine the relationship:

• exact duplicate — identical or near-identical entries, same work, no meaningful difference
• likely duplicate — same work, minor metadata differences
• version pair — same work, different publication stages (preprint/journal, conference/journal, draft/final)
• uncertain — insufficient evidence; flag for manual review

For each duplicate/version group, report: grouped entries, relationship type, proposed canonical entry, proposed action, evidence (script score + signals, identifier match, bibtex-check cross-reference).

Default canonical preference: journal article > conference/proceedings > accepted/forthcoming with final metadata > latest preprint > older draft. Preserve non-canonical versions when content, author list, or title differ, or when there is a plausible reason to cite them separately.

Optional — merge or delete entries. If merging y → x: keep x, delete y, record the merge, update .tex citations, deduplicate citation commands. If deleting without replacement and .tex files exist: check for citations and ask what to do. If no .tex files were provided, warn the user explicitly that the deletion or key change may silently break citations in any accompanying .tex files. Do not infer a merge target destructively from incomplete information.

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Modification layer

Invoke only when the user approves specific transformations. Never for audit-only steps.

Safe transformations (low-risk; may be approved in a single batch):

• normalize whitespace and indentation;
• sort fields within entries;
• remove exact duplicate fields;
• normalize DOI, page-range dash, URL/arXiv field formatting;
• apply consistent field ordering;
• remove empty fields.

Safe transformations may be approved in bulk; produce a single combined diff before writing.

Review-required transformations (each requires individual approval):

• change titles, authors, years, venues;
• add missing publication metadata;
• replace working-paper with published-version metadata (use bibtex-update — see below);
• delete or merge entries (use bibtex-update --dedupe for DOI/title-based deduplication);
• change citation keys;
• aggressive house-style rewrites.

bibtex-update for preprint upgrades and deduplication. Always preview first (--dry-run requires -o even in preview mode). Review these side effects before approving — flag each to the user:

• Author names may be reformatted from Last-First to First-Last.
• eprint fields may be silently dropped.
• Titles may gain trailing punctuation or changed capitalisation from the API.
• Top-of-file comment blocks are stripped from the output.
• New page ranges introduced by upgrades may use single hyphens rather than en-dashes.
• Do not run --dedupe on a file that contains both exact duplicates and version pairs without careful preview. The combination can produce hybrid entries with contradictory fields (e.g. @article with simultaneous journal, booktitle, and howpublished). Run deduplication only after resolving version pairs separately, or review the output entry-by-entry before writing.

bibtex-update <file.bib> --dry-run --verbose -o /tmp/preview.bib
bibtex-update <file.bib> [--dedupe] [--fill-fields] -o updated.bib --report changes.jsonl

Project-aware transformations (only when .tex files provided):

• update citation keys in .tex files;
• replace citations to merged entries;
• deduplicate keys within \cite{…} commands;
• verify citation consistency after changes.

Rewrites apply to any citation command of the form \CMDNAME[...]{keys} — including all natbib variants (\citep, \citet, \citealt, \citealp, \citeauthor, \citeyear) — not only \cite. Optional arguments [post] and [pre][post] are preserved unchanged. Examples for y → x:

\cite{y}        →  \cite{x}
\cite{a,y,z}    →  \cite{a,x,z}
\cite{x,y,z}    →  \cite{x,z}      ← deduplicate; never \cite{x,x,z}

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Output

Default audit report structure:

1. Summary
2. Critical errors
3. Local validity and formatting issues
4. External verification results
5. Duplicate/version groups
6. Suggested actions
7. Optional transformations available

Summary section contents: total entries parsed; ERROR / WARNING / INFO counts from Step 1; verification counts from Step 2 (VERIFIED N/total, CONFLICT N, UNVERIFIED N, api_error N); duplicate candidate pairs by confidence (EXACT N, HIGH N, MEDIUM N, LOW N); count of entries with published_version_exists.

Per-issue: entry key, issue type, severity, explanation, suggested action, evidence source, action class (automatic / approval-required / manual).

Suggested actions — always conclude the report with a numbered list of concrete next steps, ordered by priority (errors and conflicts first, then duplicates, then style). Each item should be actionable in one step and specify the entry key(s) involved. Example:

## Suggested Actions
1. Fix missing `journal` field in smith2020 [ERROR — manual]
2. Resolve DOI conflict in jones2019: API reports doi:10.1234/x, file has doi:10.9999/y [CONFLICT — manual]
3. Merge chen2021 → chen2022 (preprint superseded by journal article) [approval required]
4. Upgrade nguyen2020 to published version via bibtex-update [approval required]
5. Apply safe formatting fixes (whitespace, page-range dashes) across all entries [batch-approvable]

After transformations: cleaned .bib, diff, change log, key-renaming map (if keys changed), merge map (if entries merged), modified .tex files (if project-aware).

Minimal example

## Summary
Entries: 47 | Errors: 2 | Warnings: 8 | Verified: 31/47 | Duplicate candidates: 3 pairs

## Critical errors
- smith2020 (@article): missing required field `journal`. [ERROR, manual]

## Duplicate/version groups
Group 1 — version pair (HIGH, score 0.83)
  chen2021 (@misc, arXiv preprint) ↔ chen2022 (@article, Journal of ML)
  Evidence: identical title tokens, identical authors, year diff 1 (score 0.82), no shared identifier
  Canonical: chen2022 (published journal article)
  Proposed action: merge chen2021 → chen2022 [approval required]