A working bibliography that stays accurate
Lesson 5 of 6 · Literature at scale
1 · Learn the move · Recursive + iteration
A bibliography is not a list you finish; it is a system you keep true. Entries arrive from reference managers with stale DOIs, from colleagues' emails with mangled author lists, from model suggestions that may describe no real paper. The iteration discipline: every entry carries a verification state - VERIFIED means DOI resolved, title and full author list confirmed against the resolved record, dated; UNVERIFIED means not yet checked; FAILED means checked and wrong - dead DOI, mismatched title, an impossible author list. The loop reruns at every milestone: new entries enter UNVERIFIED, edits knock entries back, FAILED entries get repaired against the real record or leave. One rule, no exceptions: nothing cites while its state is anything but VERIFIED. Retraction checking layers on top - a VERIFIED entry can still be retracted; that check has its own pass.
Run a verification pass over my bibliography. For each entry output: CITE-KEY / STATE / checked fields / action. Rules: VERIFIED requires DOI resolved AND title AND full author list matched against the resolved record, with today's date stamped; near-matches (subtitle differences, missing authors, swapped initials) are FAILED with the discrepancy named, not waved through; entries you recognize as plausible are still UNVERIFIED until resolved - familiarity is not verification. I will paste resolver results for the batch; you reconcile and restate each entry's state. End with counts and the list of entries barred from citation (everything not VERIFIED).
2 · Your turn. You write the prompt
Your manuscript's 58-entry bibliography merged three sources: your reference manager, a co-author's EndNote export, and a handful of entries suggested in chats over the months. Submission is in two weeks. Stand up the verification loop and get every entry to a state.
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