Check whether your sources really exist
AI chatbots invent sources that look perfect and don't exist. Paste or upload your bibliography — cytado verifies each entry against academic databases and flags anything it can't find. Free.
Free to try.
How the check works
- 1.
Paste your bibliography
Or upload the file — any list of references.
1. Bányai F. i in., 2017.
2. Iwanowska M., 2023.
3. Adamczyk P., 2020. - 2.
We match every entry
Against Crossref, OpenAlex, Google Books and more.
CrossrefOpenAlexGoogle Books - 3.
See the flags
Confirmed, or “couldn't confirm” — with the closest match we found.
2 confirmed1 couldn't confirm
Why AI invents sources
It predicts, it doesn't look up
A chatbot assembles a citation that looks statistically likely — author, title, journal — without checking any database. It reads perfectly and may simply not exist.
Page numbers are guessed
Even for a real source, the model can't see the printed pages, so it fills in a plausible number that rarely matches the document.
Plausible is the trap
Fabricated references often look more polished than real ones, so they slip past a quick glance — until someone tries to open them.
We never call a source “fake”
Only “confirmed” or “couldn't confirm”. A missing match can mean a niche source we don't index — you decide what it means. No false accusations, no drama.
Where we check
- Crossref — journals & DOIs
- OpenAlex
- Google Books
- Open-access repositories
Checking a whole stack of student work?
Verify every submitted bibliography at once — batch checking and a department dashboard are coming for teachers and institutions.
For teachers & institutions →cytado vs. the alternatives
| cytado | Plagiarism check | By hand | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Finds invented sources | partly | ||
| Checks page numbers match | partly | ||
| Whole bibliography at once | |||
| Detects copied text | |||
| Free to use |
Frequently asked questions
Is it really free?+
Yes — checking a bibliography is free. You paste your references and get the results.
What does “couldn't confirm” mean?+
We couldn't match the entry in the databases we search. It might be a very niche or offline source — it's a flag to double-check, not an accusation.
Can it spot wrong page numbers?+
It flags citations whose details don't line up with the source we find, so you can re-check before submitting.