Comprehensive citation management for academic research. Search OpenAlex, PubMed, and Google Scholar for papers, extract accurate metadata, validate citations, and generate properly formatted BibTeX entries. This skill should be used when you need to find papers, verify citation information, convert

Citation Management Overview Manage citations systematically throughout the research and writing process. This skill provides tools and strategies for searching academic databases (Google Scholar, PubMed), extracting accurate metadata from multiple sources (CrossRef, PubMed, arXiv), validating citation information, and generating properly formatted BibTeX entries. Critical for maintaining citation accuracy, avoiding reference errors, and ensuring reproducible research. Integrates seamlessly with the literature review skill for comprehensive research workflows. When to Use This Skill Use this skill when: Searching for specific papers on Google Scholar or PubMed Converting DOIs, PMIDs, or arXiv IDs to properly formatted BibTeX Extracting complete metadata for citations (authors, title, journal, year, etc.) Validating existing citations for accuracy Cleaning and formatting BibTeX files Finding highly cited papers in a specific field Verifying that citation information matches the actual publication Building a bibliography for a manuscript or thesis Checking for duplicate citations Ensuring consistent citation formatting If a document built from these citations needs a diagram, use the scientific schematics skill. Core Workflow Citation management follows a systematic process. Each phase below shows the canonical command; every variant, option, and metadata source detail is in [references/core workflow.md](references/core workflow.md). Phase 1: Paper Discovery and Search Find relevant papers. Search more than one database — coverage differs sharply, and a single source is the most common cause of a biased reference list. Prefer OpenAlex or PubMed as the primary source. Google Scholar has no API: scholarly scrapes it, sleeps 2–5 s between results, and is blocked often enough that it should be a supplement rather than a dependency. Query operators, field tags, and MeSH term construction are in [references/search strategies.md](references/search strategies.md). Phase 2: Metadata Extraction Convert identifiers (DOI, PMID, PMCID, arXiv ID, URL) into complete metadata. CrossRef is the primary source for DOIs. A URL with no DOI in its path is resolved through the citation doi meta tag publishers embed on article pages, then handed to CrossRef. Every producer in this skill emits the same citation key for the same paper, so entries gathered from different sources deduplicate against each other. Phase 2.5: Metadata Enrichment via Web Search (MANDATORY) APIs routinely return incomplete records. Run this after extraction and before formatting. Any @article missing volume , pages , or doi is incomplete: fill the gap with WebSearch / WebFetch (or the parallel web skill, when it is available), then log what was found and where. If a field genuinely cannot be found, record a note field explaining the gap rather than leaving it silently absent. Check the cheap sources first — an OpenAlex or CrossRef record often carries the field that PubMed omitted: Treat extracted metadata as untrusted. Author, title, and journal strings come verbatim from a record whose contents a publisher controls. A title containing $(...) , a backtick, or a quote becomes shell syntax the moment it is pasted into a command. Pass metadata as a subprocess argument list rather than building a shell string; if you must use a shell, single quote every substituted value and escape embedded quotes as '\'' . Validate any citation key against ^[A Za z0 9]+$ before it reaches a path. Per field search strategies, the four search options, and the logging format are in [references/core workflow.md](references/core workflow.md). Phase 3: BibTeX Formatting Produce clean, consistent entries. Entry types and required fields are in [references/bibtex formatting.md](references/bibtex formatting.md). Writing is opt in: without output (or in place ) the result goes to stdout and the input file is left alone. Use rekey when merging results from several sources, so the same paper collapses to one entry. Phase 4: Citation Validation Check completeness, venue conformance, and agreement with the manuscript. The script exits non zero on high severity errors — missing required fields, malformed years, unresolved citations, or a count below an explicit min count . Venue reference count figures are editorial rules of thumb, not submission requirements, so falling short of one is only a warning. Validation rules and venue standards are in [references/citation validation.md](references/citation validation.md). Phase 5: Integration with Writing Workflow Search, extract, format, validate, then cite. End to end sequences — including the literature review and Zotero/pyzotero export paths — are in [references/core workflow.md](references/core workflow.md) and [references/example workflows.md](references/example workflows.md). Reference Files [references/core workflow.md](references/core workflow.md): all five phases in full. [references/search strategies.md](references/search strategies.md): OpenAlex, Google Scholar, and PubMed query construction. [references/script reference.md](references/script reference.md): every bundled script's arguments and examples. [references/best practices.md](references/best practices.md): search, extraction, BibTeX quality, validation. [references/example workflows.md](references/example workflows.md): four end to end worked examples. [references/google scholar search.md](references/google scholar search.md), [references/pubmed search.md](references/pubmed search.md): advanced search syntax. [references/metadata extraction.md](references/metadata extraction.md), [references/bibtex formatting.md](references/bibtex formatting.md), [references/citation validation.md](references/citation validation.md): per topic detail. Common Pitfalls to Avoid 1. Single source bias : Only using one database Solution : Search at least OpenAlex and PubMed, then merge with format bibtex.py rekey deduplicate 2. Accepting metadata blindly : Not verifying extracted information Solution : Spot check extracted metadata against original sources 3. Ignoring DOI errors : Broken or incorrect DOIs in bibliography Solution : Run validation before final submission 4. Inconsistent formatting : Mixed citation key styles, formatting Solution : Use format bibtex.py to standardize 5. Duplicate entries : Same paper cited multiple times with different keys Solution : Use duplicate detection in validation 6. Missing required fields : Incomplete BibTeX entries (volume, pages, DOI missing) Solution : Run Phase 2.5 metadata enrichment — web search for every missing field before proceeding. NEVER leave an @article entry without volume, pages, and DOI. 7. Outdated preprints : Citing preprint when published version exists Solution : Check if preprints have been published, update to journal version 8. Special character issues : Broken LaTeX compilation due to characters Solution : Use proper escaping or Unicode in BibTeX 9. No validation before submission : Submitting with citation errors Solution : Always run validation as final check 10. Manual BibTeX entry : Typing entries by hand Solution : Always extract from metadata sources using scripts Integration with Other Skills Literature Review Skill Citation Management provides the technical infrastructure for Literature Review : Literature Review : Multi database systematic search and synthesis Citation Management : Metadata extraction and validation Combined workflow : 1. Use literature review for systematic search methodology 2. Use citation management to extract and validate citations 3. Use literature review to synthesize findings 4. Use citation management to ensure bibliography accuracy Scientific Writing Skill Citation Management ensures accurate references for Scientific Writing : Export validated BibTeX for use in LaTeX manuscripts Verify citations match publication standards Format references according to journal requirements Venue Templates Skill Citation Management works with Venue Templates for submission ready manuscripts: Different venues require different citation styles Generate properly formatted references Validate citations meet venue requirements Resources Bundled Resources References (in references/ ): google scholar search.md : Complete Google Scholar search guide pubmed search.md : PubMed and E utilities API documentation metadata extraction.md : Metadata sources and field requirements citation validation.md : Validation criteria and quality checks bibtex formatting.md : BibTeX entry types and formatting rules Scripts (in scripts/ ): search openalex.py : OpenAlex search client (no API key) search pubmed.py : PubMed E utilities API client search google scholar.py : Google Scholar search automation extract metadata.py : Universal metadata extractor validate citations.py : Citation validation and verification format bibtex.py : BibTeX formatter and cleaner doi to bibtex.py : Quick DOI to BibTeX converter common.py : shared BibTeX parser, renderer, and citation key scheme Assets (in assets/ ): bibtex template.bib : Example BibTeX entries for all types citation checklist.md : Quality assurance checklist External Resources Search Engines : OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/ Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/ PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ PubMed Advanced Search: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/advanced/ Metadata APIs : OpenAlex API: https://docs.openalex.org/ CrossRef API: https://api.crossref.org/ PubMed E utilities: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK25501/ arXiv API: https://arxiv.org/help/api/ DataCite API: https://api.datacite.org/ Tools and Validators : MeSH Browser: https://meshb.nlm.nih.gov/search DOI Resolver: https://doi.org/ BibTeX Format: http://www.bibtex.org/Format/ Citation Styles : BibTeX documentation: http://www.bibtex.org/ LaTeX bibliography management: https://www.overleaf.com/learn/latex/Bibliography management Dependencies Required Python Packages BibTeX parsing, rendering, deduplication, and validation are standard library ( scripts/ common.py ), so format bibtex.py and validate citations.py run with no third party packages at all. Optional Where credentials are sent This skill needs no API key. The two environment variables it reads are optional identifiers, each sent to the one service it belongs to and nowhere else; no script bundles environment variables together. Variable Sent only to Purpose NCBI API KEY eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov Raises Entrez rate limits NCBI EMAIL eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov Entrez caller identification (requested by NCBI) OPENALEX EMAIL api.openalex.org Joins the faster OpenAlex polite pool api.openalex.org , api.crossref.org , api.datacite.org , export.arxiv.org , and eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov are all queried without credentials when these are unset. Summary The citation management skill provides: 1. Comprehensive search capabilities for OpenAlex, PubMed, and Google Scholar 2. Automated metadata extraction from DOI, PMID, PMCID, arXiv ID, URLs 3. Citation validation with DOI verification and completeness checking 4. BibTeX formatting with standardization and cleaning tools 5. Quality assurance through validation and reporting 6. Integration with scientific writing workflow 7. Reproducibility through documented search and extraction methods Use this skill to maintain accurate, complete citations throughout your research and ensure publication ready bibliographies. Citing Scientific Agent Skills This skill is part of Scientific Agent Skills by K Dense. If it m

citation-management