Citicious

Detect retracted articles and fake/hallucinated citations in scientific papers

Citicious is a Chrome extension that helps researchers and readers identify:

• Retracted articles - Papers that have been formally retracted by journals
• Retracted citations - References in a paper that cite retracted articles
• Fake citations - Potentially hallucinated citations (e.g., from LLM-generated content)

Features

• Top Banner Alert - Prominent warning when viewing a retracted article
• Inline Badges - Visual indicators next to each reference
• Sidebar Panel - Detailed information about all citations on the page
• Manual DOI Check - Check any DOI directly from the popup
• Works Everywhere - Automatically activates on academic publisher websites

How It Works

1. Retraction Detection: Uses the Retraction Watch Database via the CrossRef API, and OpenAlex's is_retracted flag. Expressions of concern and corrections are surfaced separately from full retractions.
2. Citation Validation: Verifies citations against the CrossRef and OpenAlex APIs.
3. Fake Detection: Flags a DOI as fake only when it is absent from CrossRef and OpenAlex and fails to resolve against the DOI Handle System (doi.org). A registered DOI that simply isn't indexed in scholarly databases (e.g. a dataset, software, or thesis) is shown as Unverified, never as fake.
4. Metadata Checks: Compares the cited title against the authoritative record and flags significant mismatches conservatively (only on a confidently-extracted, critically dissimilar title).

Screenshot

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ ⚠️ This article has been RETRACTED                          │
│ Retraction · Retracted: Jan 15, 2024 · Reason: Plagiarism   │
│ View retraction notice →                                     │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Installation

From Source (Development)

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/choxos/citicious.git
   cd citicious

2. Install dependencies and build the extension:

   cd extension
   npm install
   npm run build

3. Load in Chrome:

   • Go to chrome://extensions/
   • Enable "Developer mode"
   • Click "Load unpacked"
   • Select the extension/dist folder

Citation Status Types

Status	Badge	Description
Retracted	⚠️ RETRACTED	Article has been formally retracted
Concern	⚠️ CONCERN	Expression of concern issued for the article
Correction	📝 CORRECTION	Correction / erratum issued for the article
Fake (likely)	❌ FAKE (likely)	DOI does not exist in any database and fails to resolve at doi.org
Fake (probably)	⚠️ FAKE (probably)	DOI exists but the cited title critically mismatches the record
Verified	✓ Verified	Citation confirmed valid and not retracted
Unverified	ℹ Unverified	DOI is registered (resolves at doi.org) but not indexed in CrossRef/OpenAlex

Tech Stack

• Extension: Chrome Manifest V3, TypeScript, Webpack
• External APIs: CrossRef, OpenAlex, doi.org (DOI resolver)

Data Sources

• Retraction Watch Database - retracted articles, surfaced via CrossRef metadata
• CrossRef API - DOI metadata and retraction notices
• OpenAlex API - Open catalog of scholarly works (also provides an is_retracted flag and PMID lookups)
• DOI Handle System - authoritative existence check across all DOI registration agencies

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Author

Ahmad Sofi-Mahmudi

• GitHub: @choxos
• LinkedIn: asofimahmudi
• X/Twitter: @ASofiMahmudi

Acknowledgments

• Crossref for the Retraction Watch Database API
• OpenAlex for the open scholarly metadata API
• Retraction Watch for their invaluable work in tracking retractions