How Accurate Are the Reference Checker and the In-Text Citation Checker?

How the reference checker decides

A retracted paper is still a real paper, so the checker finds it and its card names the retraction next to it. Answers recorded on 23 September 2026 and 6 October 2026. Limits: books, theses, reports and some regional journals are often missing from these indexes, and the checker then says it could not find the reference, never that it is invented.

How the in-text citation checker decides

Sleep loss impairs memory consolidation in graduate students (Okafor, 2019). Later work linked short sleep to lower exam scores (Lindgren & Haas, 2021).

References

Lindgren, E., & Haas, M. (2021). Short sleep and exam performance in postgraduate students. Journal of Sleep Studies, 30(4), 101-112.

Luna (2020) reported the first result, later replicated (Luna, 2020). Salas and D’Agostino (2020) disagreed (Salas & D'Agostino, 2020). A larger team extended it (Martin et al., 2020), and Martin et al. (2020) published the data.

References

Luna, A. (2020). A first result. Journal A, 1(1), 1-10.

Salas, E., & D’Agostino, P. (2020). A disagreement. Journal B, 2(1), 11-20.

Martin, R., Chen, L., & Okoye, U. (2020). An extension. Journal C, 3(1), 21-30.

Several studies agree (Adams et al., 2019; Shumway & Shulman, 2015; Westinghouse, 2017). The most direct evidence is recent (Sampson & Hughes, 2020; see also Augustine, 2017; Melara et al., 2018).

References

Adams, J., Brown, K., & Cole, L. (2019). Title one. Journal A, 1, 1-2.

Augustine, M. (2017). Title two. Journal B, 2, 3-4.

Melara, R., Diaz, S., & Ortiz, T. (2018). Title three. Journal C, 3, 5-6.

Sampson, P., & Hughes, Q. (2020). Title four. Journal D, 4, 7-8.

Westinghouse, G. (2017). Title five. Journal E, 5, 9-10.

Policy changed several times (Department of Veterans Affairs, n.d., 2017a, 2017b, 2019). Zhou (n.d., 2000, 2016, in press) traced the same shift.

References

Department of Veterans Affairs. (n.d.). Policy page. https://www.va.gov/

Department of Veterans Affairs. (2017a). First report. Author.

Department of Veterans Affairs. (2017b). Second report. Author.

Zhou, L. (n.d.). Undated work. Source.

Zhou, L. (2000). Early work. Journal Z, 1, 1-9.

Zhou, L. (2016). Later work. Journal Z, 17, 10-19.

Zhou, L. (in press). Forthcoming work. Journal Z.

The effect held in one sample (Blondaux & O’Hanrahan, 2018a), but Blondaux and O’Hanrahan (2018b) found it reversed.

References

Blondaux, A., & O’Hanrahan, B. (2018a). Alpha study. Journal A, 1, 1-9.

Jones (2012a) provides a useful overview of evidence based practice. This has been further refined (Jones, 2012).

References

Jones, P. (2012a) Evidence Based Medicine. Blackwell Publishing.

Jones, P. (2012b) International Evidence Based Medicine. Redcliffe Press.

One survey reported it (Stoddard et al., 2020, p. 47) and the agency agreed (World Health Organization, 2019, pp. 202–205). The theory is set out in full (Merenda, 2018, Chapter 14) and summarised briefly (Liu et al., 2020, para. 3; Bassie & Meagher, 2020, paras. 4–5). The trend is plotted (Lazer, 2020, Figure 4), shown on video (Patel & Gupta, 2019, 1:09:19) and indexed (Svendsen & Løber, 2020, c373).

References

Bassie, A., & Meagher, B. (2020). Title. Journal A, 1, 1-9.

Lazer, C. (2020). Title. Journal B, 2, 1-9.

Liu, D., Wang, E., & Zhao, F. (2020). Title. Journal C, 3, 1-9.

Merenda, G. (2018). Title. Publisher.

Patel, H., & Gupta, I. (2019). Title [Video]. YouTube.

Stoddard, J., Kim, K., & Long, L. (2020). Title. Journal D, 4, 1-9.

Svendsen, M., & Løber, N. (2020). Title. Journal E, 5, 1-9.

World Health Organization. (2019). Title. Author.

Anxiety is common (National Institute of Mental Health [NIMH], 2020). NIMH (2020) also reports rising referrals, as noted above (NIMH, 2020). Stanford University (2020) found the same.

References

National Institute of Mental Health. (2020). Anxiety disorders. Author.

Stanford University. (2020). Campus wellbeing report. Author.

Koehler (2016) noted the dangers of falsely balanced news coverage. Koehler also showed that readers overestimate disagreement. Koehler’s (2016) analysis is widely cited. In 2019, Dixon noted a similar effect.

References

Dixon, G. (2019). Title. Journal A, 1, 1-9.

Koehler, D. J. (2016). Title. Journal B, 2, 1-9.

Earlier work suggested attention declines with age (Rabbitt, 1982, as cited in Lyon et al., 2014). Allport’s diary (as cited in Nicholson, 2003) records the same doubt.

References

Lyon, A., Moore, B., & Neal, C. (2014). Title. Journal A, 1, 1-9.

Nicholson, D. (2003). Title. Publisher.

One clinician described the waiting list as unmanageable (T. Nguyen, personal communication, February 24, 2020). E.-M. Paradis (personal communication, August 8, 2019) agreed. Waiting times have grown (Luna, 2020).

References

Luna, A. (2020). Title. Journal A, 1, 1-9.

Grief work has been studied closely (J. M. Taylor & Neimeyer, 2015; T. Taylor, 2014), including by siblings (Chen & Chen, 2019).

References

Chen, L., & Chen, Y. (2019). Title. Journal A, 1, 1-9.

Taylor, J. M., & Neimeyer, R. A. (2015). Title. Journal B, 2, 1-9.

Taylor, T. (2014). Title. Journal C, 3, 1-9.

Kapoor, Bloom, Montez, et al. (2017) found one effect, whereas Kapoor, Bloom, Zucker, et al. (2017) found the opposite.

References

Kapoor, A., Bloom, B., Montez, C., Dunn, D., & Ellis, E. (2017). First title. Journal A, 1, 1-9.

Kapoor, A., Bloom, B., Zucker, F., Grant, G., & Hale, H. (2017). Second title. Journal B, 2, 1-9.

Flood risk is rising (van der Waal, 2019). Van der Waal (2019) puts it plainly. Migration patterns differ (Santos-García & Velasco Rodríguez, 2020), as do readings of class (hooks, 2000) and of protest (King, 1963).

References

hooks, b. (2000). Feminism is for everybody. South End Press.

King, M. L., Jr. (1963). Title. Publisher.

Santos-García, S., & Velasco Rodríguez, M. L. (2020). Title. Journal A, 1, 1-9.

van der Waal, P. N. (2019). Title. Journal B, 2, 1-9.

Three undated or forthcoming sources are cited (Dreschke, n.d.; van der Waal, n.d.; de Bruyn, in press).

References

Dreschke, M. (n.d.). Notes on reading. Blog.
van der Waal, P. N. (n.d.). Dutch dikes and flood risk. Water Policy.
de Bruyn, S. (in press). Particles in names. Journal X.

The effect is small (Muller, 2018) but robust (Garcia-Lopez et al, 2021, pp. 34-36; Nguyen et. al., 2022). Smith et al.’s (2020) model explains it, and later work (Martin et
al., 2020) and (O'Brien, 2017) agrees.

References

García-López, A., Ruiz, B., & Soto, C. (2021). Title. Journal A, 1, 1-9.

Martin, R., Chen, L., & Okoye, U. (2020). Title. Journal B, 2, 1-9.

Müller, K. (2018). Title. Journal C, 3, 1-9.

Nguyen, T., Pham, L., & Tran, H. (2022). Title. Journal D, 4, 1-9.

O’Brien, C. (2017). Title. Journal E, 5, 1-9.

Smith, J., Lee, K., & Patel, R. (2020). Title. Journal F, 6, 1-9.

Thematic analysis has six phases (Braun & Clarke, 2008).

References

Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77-101.

Losses loom larger than gains (Kahnemann & Tversky, 1979).

References

Kahneman, D., & Tversky, A. (1979). Prospect theory: An analysis of decision under risk. Econometrica, 47(2), 263-291.

The pattern was clear (Smith et al., 2020).

References

Smith, J., & Lee, K. (2020). Title. Journal A, 1, 1-9.

Most teenagers sleep too little ("Teen Sleep Habits," 2021). One memoir describes the training (Anonymous, 2017).

References

Anonymous. (2017). Stories from my time as a spy. Bond Publishers.

Teen sleep habits. (2021). Sleep Survey Weekly.

Waiting times have grown (Luna, 2020).

References

Luna, A. (2020). Title. Journal A, 1, 1-9.

Okoye, U. (2018). Title. Journal B, 2, 1-9.

Waiting times have grown (Luna, 2020).

Bibliography

Luna, A. (2020) Title. Journal A, 1, pp. 1-9.

Okoye, U. (2018) Title. Journal B, 2, pp. 1-9.

Participants (n = 30) completed the scale (M = 4.2, SD = 1.1). The effect was significant (p < .05; see Table 3 and Figure 2). Data from the Great Recession (2008) and from 2019–2021 (the COVID-19 period) were excluded [sic]. Results matched earlier work (Koehler, 2016).

References

Koehler, D. J. (2016). Title. Journal A, 1, 1-9.

Two undated posts make the point (Dreschke, n.d.-a, n.d.-b), and a forthcoming paper tests it (Zhou, in press).

References

Dreschke, M. (n.d.-a). First post. Blog.

Dreschke, M. (n.d.-b). Second post. Blog.

Zhou, L. (in press). Forthcoming work. Journal Z.

Waiting times have grown (Luna, 2020).

References

Luna, A. (2020). Title. Journal A, 1, 1-9.

Okoye, U. (2018). Title. Journal B, 2, 1-9.

Appendix A

The interview guide adapts an earlier instrument (Okoye, 2018) and a pilot (Okafor, 2019).

In a recent study (Handy, 1987) management is described as an art, as defined by Mintzberg (1983). Gremlin and Jenking (1981) disagree, and a later study (Kudless, Oxman and Swackhamer, 2008) tested both. Kotler et al. (1987) extend the model (Kotler et al., 1987).

References

Gremlin, A. and Jenking, B. (1981) Title. Publisher.

Handy, C. (1987) Title. Publisher.

Kotler, P., Armstrong, G., Saunders, J. and Wong, V. (1987) Title. Publisher.

Kudless, D., Oxman, E. and Swackhamer, F. (2008) Title. Journal A, 1, pp. 1-9.

Mintzberg, H. (1983) Title. Publisher.

Melack and Thompson (1971, cited by Rowley 1991) developed the McGill Archaeology questionnaire. Rowley (1991, citing Melack and Thompson 1971) refers to it again.

References

Rowley, J. (1991) Title. Publisher.

A number of environmental studies (Karlhofer, 2018; Town, 2018, pp. 320-334; Barkhov et al., 2019; Fujiwara, 2021, pp. 23-25) considered the question.

References

Barkhov, A., Bell, B., Cruz, C. and Dahl, D. (2019) Title. Journal A, 1, pp. 1-9.

Karlhofer, E. (2018) Title. Publisher.

Town, F. (2018) Title. Journal B, 2, pp. 300-340.

Jones (2012a) provides a useful overview of evidence based practice. This has been further refined in her latest book (Jones, 2012b).

References

Jones, P. (2012a) Evidence Based Medicine. Blackwell Publishing.

Jones, P. (2012b) International Evidence Based Medicine. Redcliffe Press.

Student activism splits by party (Binder and Kidder 2022, 117–18). Typecasting is the novel's subject (Yu 2020, 45), as it is in translation (Liu 2021, 279). Belonging is negotiated daily (Kwon 2022, 1842–43), and life can be detected on video (Snyder et al. 2025, 9–10).

References

Binder, Amy J., and Jeffrey L. Kidder. 2022. The Channels of Student Activism: How the Left and Right Are Winning (and Losing) in Campus Politics Today. University of Chicago Press.

Kwon, Hyeyoung. 2022. “Inclusion Work: Children of Immigrants Claiming Membership in Everyday Life.” American Journal of Sociology 127 (6): 1818–59. https://doi.org/10.1086/720277.

Liu Xinwu. 2021. The Wedding Party. Translated by Jeremy Tiang. Amazon Crossing.

Snyder, Carl D., Manuel Bedrossian, Casey Barr, et al. 2025. “Extant Life Detection Using Label-Free Video Microscopy in Analog Aquatic Environments.” PLOS ONE 20 (3): e0318239. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0318239.

Yu, Charles. 2020. Interior Chinatown. Pantheon Books.

According to [1], the model converges; as shown by Brown [4], [5]; as mentioned earlier [2], [4], [5]; Wood et al. [3] agree. See [3, pp. 5–10] and [3, Fig. 1]. A recent result [7] disagrees.

References

[1] A. Author, “Title one,” J. A, vol. 1, pp. 1–9, 2020.

[2] B. Author, “Title two,” J. B, vol. 2, pp. 1–9, 2021.

[3] C. Wood, D. Author, and E. Author, “Title three,” J. C, vol. 3, pp. 1–9, 2022.

[4] F. Brown, “Title four,” J. D, vol. 4, pp. 1–9, 2019.

[5] F. Brown, “Title five,” J. E, vol. 5, pp. 1–9, 2020.

[6] G. Author, “Title six,” J. F, vol. 6, pp. 1–9, 2018.

Prior work [1]–[4] and later studies [5-7] agree, as do two recent reports [8, 9].

References

[1] A. One, “T1,” J., 2020.

[2] B. Two, “T2,” J., 2020.

[3] C. Three, “T3,” J., 2020.

[4] D. Four, “T4,” J., 2020.

[5] E. Five, “T5,” J., 2020.

[6] F. Six, “T6,” J., 2020.

[7] G. Seven, “T7,” J., 2020.

[8] H. Eight, “T8,” J., 2020.

[9] I. Nine, “T9,” J., 2020.

Recent research (1) indicates the number of duplicate papers is increasing. Several studies (2-4) have examined it. As emphasised by Watkins (5), carers need support. In 120 patients aged 18-65 (95% CI 1.2-3.4; p < 0.05) seen during 1990-1995 (Table 2), the effect held.

References

1. Author A. Title one. J A. 2020;1:1-9.

2. Author B. Title two. J B. 2020;2:1-9.

3. Author C. Title three. J C. 2020;3:1-9.

4. Author D. Title four. J D. 2020;4:1-9.

5. Watkins E. Title five. J E. 2020;5:1-9.

6. Author F. Title six. J F. 2020;6:1-9.

Recent research¹ indicates the number of duplicate papers is increasing, and several studies²⁻⁴ have examined it.

References

1. Author A. Title one. J A. 2020;1:1-9.

2. Author B. Title two. J B. 2020;2:1-9.

3. Author C. Title three. J C. 2020;3:1-9.

4. Author D. Title four. J D. 2020;4:1-9.

Obesity, defined as a body mass index of 30 kg/m² or more, is rising in adults.¹ Tumours larger than 12 cm³ were left out of the trial.³ Diet plays a part in both.⁴

References

1. Author A. Title one. J A. 2020;1:1-9.

2. Author B. Title two. J B. 2020;2:1-9.

3. Author C. Title three. J C. 2020;3:1-9.

4. Author D. Title four. J D. 2020;4:1-9.

At least one researcher has broken new ground on the subject (Baron). Reading is “just half of literacy. The other half is writing” (Baron 194). Some scholars have advocated that critics move away from readings that focus on what might be hidden in a text (Best and Marcus). Collaboration changes authorship (Taylor et al., “Collaboration”), and so does cowriting (Taylor et al., “Cowriting”).

References

Baron, Naomi S. “Redefining Reading: The Impact of Digital Communication Media.” PMLA, vol. 128, no. 1, Jan. 2013, pp. 193–200.

Best, Stephen, and Sharon Marcus. “Title.” Journal A, vol. 1, no. 1, 2009.

Taylor, Sandy, et al. “Collaboration in the Twenty-First Century.” Journal of Collaborative Writing, vol. 20, no. 1, 2017, pp. 15-25.

Taylor, Sandy, et al. “Cowriting Papers.” Sharing Ideas, vol. 2, no. 1, 2017, pp. 26-35.

In Orientalism (1978), Edward W. Said writes, “Men have always divided the world up into regions having either real or imagined distinction from each other” (39).

References

Said, Edward W. Orientalism. Vintage Books, 1979.

Reading is “just half of literacy” (Baron 194), and writing is the other half (Kiernan 12).

References

Baron, Naomi S. “Redefining Reading: The Impact of Digital Communication Media.” PMLA, vol. 128, no. 1, Jan. 2013, pp. 193–200.

Yu’s novel satirises typecasting.1 Later critics agreed.2

Notes

1. Charles Yu, Interior Chinatown (Pantheon Books, 2020), 45.
2. Amy J. Binder and Jeffrey L. Kidder, The Channels of Student Activism (University of Chicago Press, 2022), 117–18.

Bibliography

Binder, Amy J., and Jeffrey L. Kidder. The Channels of Student Activism. University of Chicago Press, 2022.
Yu, Charles. Interior Chinatown. Pantheon Books, 2020.

Two studies used the same scale (Zhang & Li, 2020). Two others did not (J.-H. Kim, 2019; S. Kim, 2019), and Kim (2019) does not say which sample was larger.

References

Kim, J.-H. (2019). Title one. Journal A, 1, 1-9.

Kim, S. (2019). Title two. Journal B, 2, 1-9.

Zhang, W., & Li, X. (2020). Title three. Journal C, 3, 1-9.

Obesity worldwide has nearly tripled since 1975 (WHO, 2020).

References

World Health Organization. (2020). Obesity and overweight. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/obesity-and-overweight

Teachers reported rising workload (Department for Education [DfE], 2019). The next survey found the same pattern (DfE, 2020).

References

Department for Education. (2019). Teacher workload: Survey findings. Author.

Department for Education. (2020). Teacher workload: Follow-up survey. Author.

Teacher workload rose again in the most recent national survey (DfE, 2020).

References

Department for Education. (2020). Teacher workload: Follow-up survey. Author.

Smith and colleagues (2020) reported the same pattern in older adults.

References

Smith, J., Lee, K., & Patel, R. (2020). Title. Journal F, 6, 1-9.

Expectation maximization is explained step by step (Do & Batzoglou, 2008), and An (2019) applied it to imaging.

References

An, J. (2019). Title. Journal A, 1, 1-9.

Do, C. B., & Batzoglou, S. (2008). What is the expectation maximization algorithm? Nature Biotechnology, 26(8), 897-899.

Earlier models [1] and later ones [2] differ in depth.

References

A. One, “Title one,” J. A, vol. 1, pp. 1–9, 2020.

B. Two, “Title two,” J. B, vol. 2, pp. 1–9, 2021.

Later work (2) built on earlier trials (1).

References

1. Author A. Title one. J A. 2020;1:1-9.

2. Author B. Title two. J B. 2020;2:1-9.

Waiting times have grown (Luna, 2020).

Reference List

Luna, A. (2020). Title. Journal A, 1, 1-9.

Okoye, U. (2018). Title. Journal B, 2, 1-9.

Waiting times have grown (Luna, 2020).

(Reference list box)

Luna, A. (2020). Title. Journal A, 1, 1-9.

Okoye, U. (2018). Title. Journal B, 2, 1-9.

Waiting times have grown (Luna, 2020), as earlier work found (Okoye, 2018).

References

1. Luna, A. (2020). Title. Journal A, 1, 1-9.

2. Okoye, U. (2018). Title. Journal B, 2, 1-9.

Waiting times have grown (Luna, 2020), as reported elsewhere [3].

References

Luna, A. (2020). Title. Journal A, 1, 1-9.

Enrolment rose between 2010 and 2015 (n = 40), in the second phase (Phase 2, 2021) and after the Great Recession (2008), as Luna (2020) notes.

References

Luna, A. (2020). Title. Journal A, 1, 1-9.

Sleep length explained a third of the variance in recall, R² = .32 (Luna, 2020). The difference between the groups held, χ²(1) = 4.2, p = .04, as Okoye (2018) also found.

References

Luna, A. (2020). Title. Journal A, 1, 1-9.

Okoye, U. (2018). Title. Journal B, 2, 1-9.

As Dixon showed in 2019, reading speed falls with age.

References

Dixon, G. (2019). Title. Journal A, 1, 1-9.

Short sleep lowers recall (Smith, 2019). In 2018, Luna found the same effect across school terms.

References

Luna, A. (2020). Title. Journal A, 1, 1-9.

Smith, J. (2019). Title. Journal B, 2, 1-9.

Earlier work found the effect (Smith, 2020). Later work (Smith, 2018) agrees with it.

References

Smith, A. (2018). Title one. Journal A, 1, 1-9.

Smith, B. (2019). Title two. Journal B, 2, 1-9.

Attention declines with age (Rabbitt, 1982, as cited in Lyon et al., 2014).

References

Lyon, A., Moore, B., & Neal, C. (2014). Title. Journal A, 1, 1-9.

Rabbitt, P. (1982). Title. Journal B, 2, 1-9.

Thematic analysis is one of the most widely used approaches in qualitative psychology (Braun & Clarke, 2008). People weigh a loss more heavily than a gain of the same size (Kahneman & Tversky, 1979; Tversky & Kahneman, 1992). Kahnemann and Tversky (1979) put it as losses looming larger than gains. Deep learning lets models learn representations of data with several levels of abstraction (LeCun et al., 2015, p. 436). Ioannidis (2005) argued that small studies and flexible analyses make many published findings unreliable.

References

Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77–101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa

Ioannidis, J. P. A. (2005). Why most published research findings are false. PLoS Medicine, 2(8), e124. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.0020124

Kahneman, D., & Tversky, A. (1979). Prospect theory: An analysis of decision under risk. Econometrica, 47(2), 263–291. https://doi.org/10.2307/1914185

LeCun, Y., Bengio, Y., & Hinton, G. (2015). Deep learning. Nature, 521(7553), 436–444. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature14539

Vaswani, A., Shazeer, N., Parmar, N., Uszkoreit, J., Jones, L., Gomez, A. N., Kaiser, Ł., & Polosukhin, I. (2017). Attention is all you need. Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems, 30.

• slip-deleted-reference

  APA 7

  The r/GradSchool slip: a reference deleted from the list but left in the text, which a professor called 'a fabricated citation indicative of AI'.

  Expected: No entry: Okafor, 2019

  Result: Matches

  Rule source: r/GradSchool, “It happened to me! Accused of using AI”

  Show the test text

  Sleep loss impairs memory consolidation in graduate students (Okafor, 2019). Later work linked short sleep to lower exam scores (Lindgren & Haas, 2021).
  
  References
  
  Lindgren, E., & Haas, M. (2021). Short sleep and exam performance in postgraduate students. Journal of Sleep Studies, 30(4), 101-112.

• apa-basic-author-counts

  APA 7

  APA's basic table: one author, two authors ('&' in brackets, 'and' in prose), three or more with et al. Curly and straight apostrophes in D’Agostino must compare equal.

  Expected: Nothing to report

  Result: Matches

  Rule source: APA Style, Author-Date Citation System

  Show the test text

  Luna (2020) reported the first result, later replicated (Luna, 2020). Salas and D’Agostino (2020) disagreed (Salas & D'Agostino, 2020). A larger team extended it (Martin et al., 2020), and Martin et al. (2020) published the data.
  
  References
  
  Luna, A. (2020). A first result. Journal A, 1(1), 1-10.
  
  Salas, E., & D’Agostino, P. (2020). A disagreement. Journal B, 2(1), 11-20.
  
  Martin, R., Chen, L., & Okoye, U. (2020). An extension. Journal C, 3(1), 21-30.

• apa-multiple-works-one-bracket

  APA 7

  Several works in one bracket, split on semicolons, including a 'see also' prefix. Only the absent one is flagged.

  Expected: No entry: Shumway & Shulman, 2015

  Result: Matches

  Rule source: APA Style, Multiple Works

  Show the test text

  Several studies agree (Adams et al., 2019; Shumway & Shulman, 2015; Westinghouse, 2017). The most direct evidence is recent (Sampson & Hughes, 2020; see also Augustine, 2017; Melara et al., 2018).
  
  References
  
  Adams, J., Brown, K., & Cole, L. (2019). Title one. Journal A, 1, 1-2.
  
  Augustine, M. (2017). Title two. Journal B, 2, 3-4.
  
  Melara, R., Diaz, S., & Ortiz, T. (2018). Title three. Journal C, 3, 5-6.
  
  Sampson, P., & Hughes, Q. (2020). Title four. Journal D, 4, 7-8.
  
  Westinghouse, G. (2017). Title five. Journal E, 5, 9-10.

• apa-same-author-year-list

  APA 7

  One author, several dates after one name, including n.d., letter suffixes and 'in press'. Each date is its own citation.

  Expected: No entry: Department of Veterans Affairs, 2019

  Result: Matches

  Rule source: APA Style, Multiple Works

  Show the test text

  Policy changed several times (Department of Veterans Affairs, n.d., 2017a, 2017b, 2019). Zhou (n.d., 2000, 2016, in press) traced the same shift.
  
  References
  
  Department of Veterans Affairs. (n.d.). Policy page. https://www.va.gov/
  
  Department of Veterans Affairs. (2017a). First report. Author.
  
  Department of Veterans Affairs. (2017b). Second report. Author.
  
  Zhou, L. (n.d.). Undated work. Source.
  
  Zhou, L. (2000). Early work. Journal Z, 1, 1-9.
  
  Zhou, L. (2016). Later work. Journal Z, 17, 10-19.
  
  Zhou, L. (in press). Forthcoming work. Journal Z.

• apa-year-suffix-missing-entry

  APA 7

  The letter is part of the date: 2018b is not covered by 2018a.

  Expected: No entry: Blondaux & O’Hanrahan, 2018b

  Result: Matches

  Rule source: APA Style, Works With the Same Author and Same Date

  Show the test text

  The effect held in one sample (Blondaux & O’Hanrahan, 2018a), but Blondaux and O’Hanrahan (2018b) found it reversed.
  
  References
  
  Blondaux, A., & O’Hanrahan, B. (2018a). Alpha study. Journal A, 1, 1-9.

• harvard-suffix-ambiguous

  Harvard (Cite Them Right)

  A citation without the letter when the list has 2012a and 2012b is ambiguous, not missing; neither candidate is reported as never cited.

  Expected: Jones, 2012: needs a year letter

  Result: Matches

  Rule source: UWE Bristol, Cite Them Right Harvard: in-text citations

  Show the test text

  Jones (2012a) provides a useful overview of evidence based practice. This has been further refined (Jones, 2012).
  
  References
  
  Jones, P. (2012a) Evidence Based Medicine. Blackwell Publishing.
  
  Jones, P. (2012b) International Evidence Based Medicine. Redcliffe Press.

• apa-page-and-part-locators

  APA 7

  Locators after the year (page, range, chapter, paragraph, figure, time stamp, content ID) are part of the citation, never a second work or a year.

  Expected: Nothing to report

  Result: Matches

  Rule source: APA Style, Citing Specific Parts of a Source; APA Style: Page numbers

  Show the test text

  One survey reported it (Stoddard et al., 2020, p. 47) and the agency agreed (World Health Organization, 2019, pp. 202–205). The theory is set out in full (Merenda, 2018, Chapter 14) and summarised briefly (Liu et al., 2020, para. 3; Bassie & Meagher, 2020, paras. 4–5). The trend is plotted (Lazer, 2020, Figure 4), shown on video (Patel & Gupta, 2019, 1:09:19) and indexed (Svendsen & Løber, 2020, c373).
  
  References
  
  Bassie, A., & Meagher, B. (2020). Title. Journal A, 1, 1-9.
  
  Lazer, C. (2020). Title. Journal B, 2, 1-9.
  
  Liu, D., Wang, E., & Zhao, F. (2020). Title. Journal C, 3, 1-9.
  
  Merenda, G. (2018). Title. Publisher.
  
  Patel, H., & Gupta, I. (2019). Title [Video]. YouTube.
  
  Stoddard, J., Kim, K., & Long, L. (2020). Title. Journal D, 4, 1-9.
  
  Svendsen, M., & Løber, N. (2020). Title. Journal E, 5, 1-9.
  
  World Health Organization. (2019). Title. Author.

• apa-group-author-abbreviation

  APA 7

  A group author is defined once with its abbreviation in square brackets and then cited by the abbreviation, which never appears in the list entry. [NIMH] is not a numeric citation.

  Expected: Nothing to report

  Result: Matches

  Rule source: APA Style, Author-Date Citation System; APA Style: Elements list entry

  Show the test text

  Anxiety is common (National Institute of Mental Health [NIMH], 2020). NIMH (2020) also reports rising referrals, as noted above (NIMH, 2020). Stanford University (2020) found the same.
  
  References
  
  National Institute of Mental Health. (2020). Anxiety disorders. Author.
  
  Stanford University. (2020). Campus wellbeing report. Author.

• apa-narrative-variants

  APA 7

  Narrative citations: a later mention in the paragraph without the year, a possessive, and the rare form with the year in the sentence and no brackets. Dixon must not be reported as never cited.

  Expected: Nothing to report

  Result: Matches

  Rule source: APA Style, Parenthetical Versus Narrative In-Text Citations; APA Style, Author-Date Citation System

  Show the test text

  Koehler (2016) noted the dangers of falsely balanced news coverage. Koehler also showed that readers overestimate disagreement. Koehler’s (2016) analysis is widely cited. In 2019, Dixon noted a similar effect.
  
  References
  
  Dixon, G. (2019). Title. Journal A, 1, 1-9.
  
  Koehler, D. J. (2016). Title. Journal B, 2, 1-9.

• apa-secondary-as-cited-in

  APA 7

  The primary work cited 'as cited in' a secondary source has no list entry by design. Only the secondary source is listed.

  Expected: Nothing to report

  Result: Matches

  Rule source: APA Style, Secondary Sources

  Show the test text

  Earlier work suggested attention declines with age (Rabbitt, 1982, as cited in Lyon et al., 2014). Allport’s diary (as cited in Nicholson, 2003) records the same doubt.
  
  References
  
  Lyon, A., Moore, B., & Neal, C. (2014). Title. Journal A, 1, 1-9.
  
  Nicholson, D. (2003). Title. Publisher.

• apa-personal-communication

  APA 7

  Personal communications are cited in the text only and never appear in the reference list.

  Expected: Nothing to report

  Result: Matches

  Rule source: APA Style, Personal Communications

  Show the test text

  One clinician described the waiting list as unmanageable (T. Nguyen, personal communication, February 24, 2020). E.-M. Paradis (personal communication, August 8, 2019) agreed. Waiting times have grown (Luna, 2020).
  
  References
  
  Luna, A. (2020). Title. Journal A, 1, 1-9.

• apa-same-surname-initials

  APA 7

  Initials before a surname pick between first authors who share it; two authors in one work who share a surname need none.

  Expected: Nothing to report

  Result: Matches

  Rule source: APA Style, Authors With the Same Surname

  Show the test text

  Grief work has been studied closely (J. M. Taylor & Neimeyer, 2015; T. Taylor, 2014), including by siblings (Chen & Chen, 2019).
  
  References
  
  Chen, L., & Chen, Y. (2019). Title. Journal A, 1, 1-9.
  
  Taylor, J. M., & Neimeyer, R. A. (2015). Title. Journal B, 2, 1-9.
  
  Taylor, T. (2014). Title. Journal C, 3, 1-9.

• apa-et-al-disambiguation

  APA 7

  When two works shorten to the same et al. form, more names are written out; each citation links to its own entry and neither is never-cited.

  Expected: Nothing to report

  Result: Matches

  Rule source: APA Style: Same year first author

  Show the test text

  Kapoor, Bloom, Montez, et al. (2017) found one effect, whereas Kapoor, Bloom, Zucker, et al. (2017) found the opposite.
  
  References
  
  Kapoor, A., Bloom, B., Montez, C., Dunn, D., & Ellis, E. (2017). First title. Journal A, 1, 1-9.
  
  Kapoor, A., Bloom, B., Zucker, F., Grant, G., & Hale, H. (2017). Second title. Journal B, 2, 1-9.

• apa-particles-hyphens-suffixes

  APA 7

  Particles kept with the surname (and capitalised at the start of a sentence), hyphenated and two-part surnames, a lowercase name, and a suffix (Jr.) that is left out of the in-text citation.

  Expected: Nothing to report

  Result: Matches

  Rule source: APA Style: Elements list entry; APA Style, Author-Date Citation System

  Show the test text

  Flood risk is rising (van der Waal, 2019). Van der Waal (2019) puts it plainly. Migration patterns differ (Santos-García & Velasco Rodríguez, 2020), as do readings of class (hooks, 2000) and of protest (King, 1963).
  
  References
  
  hooks, b. (2000). Feminism is for everybody. South End Press.
  
  King, M. L., Jr. (1963). Title. Publisher.
  
  Santos-García, S., & Velasco Rodríguez, M. L. (2020). Title. Journal A, 1, 1-9.
  
  van der Waal, P. N. (2019). Title. Journal B, 2, 1-9.

• split-no-year-lowercase-particle

  APA 7

  Pasted with single line breaks, a splitter that needs a four-digit year or a capital letter to start an entry merges a line that starts with a lowercase particle into the one before it, so van der Waal and de Bruyn would vanish and their citations would be false orphans. Run with the list joined by single newlines.

  Expected: Nothing to report

  Result: Matches

  Rule source: APA Style: Missing information

  Show the test text

  Three undated or forthcoming sources are cited (Dreschke, n.d.; van der Waal, n.d.; de Bruyn, in press).
  
  References
  
  Dreschke, M. (n.d.). Notes on reading. Blog.
  van der Waal, P. N. (n.d.). Dutch dikes and flood risk. Water Policy.
  de Bruyn, S. (in press). Particles in names. Journal X.

• apa-typography-variants

  APA 7

  Accents, curly or straight apostrophes, hyphen or en dash, 'et al' without its full stop, the misspelling 'et. al.', a line break inside 'et al.' and a possessive must not create orphans. A spelling note on Muller or Garcia-Lopez is allowed, not required.

  Expected: Nothing to report

  Result: Matches

  Rule source: APA Style, Basic Principles of Citation

  Show the test text

  The effect is small (Muller, 2018) but robust (Garcia-Lopez et al, 2021, pp. 34-36; Nguyen et. al., 2022). Smith et al.’s (2020) model explains it, and later work (Martin et
  al., 2020) and (O'Brien, 2017) agrees.
  
  References
  
  García-López, A., Ruiz, B., & Soto, C. (2021). Title. Journal A, 1, 1-9.
  
  Martin, R., Chen, L., & Okoye, U. (2020). Title. Journal B, 2, 1-9.
  
  Müller, K. (2018). Title. Journal C, 3, 1-9.
  
  Nguyen, T., Pham, L., & Tran, H. (2022). Title. Journal D, 4, 1-9.
  
  O’Brien, C. (2017). Title. Journal E, 5, 1-9.
  
  Smith, J., Lee, K., & Patel, R. (2020). Title. Journal F, 6, 1-9.

• apa-year-mismatch

  APA 7

  Same authors, different year: report 'you wrote 2008, your list says 2006', not an orphan in either direction. APA: the year in the citation should match the entry.

  Expected: Braun & Clarke, 2008: year differs (2008 for 2006)

  Result: Matches

  Rule source: APA Style, Author-Date Citation System; APA Style, Basic Principles of Citation

  Show the test text

  Thematic analysis has six phases (Braun & Clarke, 2008).
  
  References
  
  Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77-101.

• apa-author-misspelling

  APA 7

  One letter off, same co-author and year: a spelling mismatch, not a missing reference. APA asks that names in citations and entries are spelled the same.

  Expected: Kahnemann & Tversky, 1979: name differs (Kahnemann for Kahneman)

  Result: Matches

  Rule source: APA Style, Basic Principles of Citation

  Show the test text

  Losses loom larger than gains (Kahnemann & Tversky, 1979).
  
  References
  
  Kahneman, D., & Tversky, A. (1979). Prospect theory: An analysis of decision under risk. Econometrica, 47(2), 263-291.

• apa-et-al-on-two-author-entry

  APA 7

  et al. on a two-author work is a style slip, not a missing reference. A note that both names are needed is allowed.

  Expected: Nothing to report

  Result: Matches

  Rule source: APA Style, Author-Date Citation System

  Show the test text

  The pattern was clear (Smith et al., 2020).
  
  References
  
  Smith, J., & Lee, K. (2020). Title. Journal A, 1, 1-9.

• apa-no-author-and-anonymous

  APA 7

  With no author the title takes the author's place in both citation and entry, in a different case style; a work signed Anonymous is cited as Anonymous.

  Expected: Nothing to report

  Result: Matches

  Rule source: APA Style: Missing information

  Show the test text

  Most teenagers sleep too little ("Teen Sleep Habits," 2021). One memoir describes the training (Anonymous, 2017).
  
  References
  
  Anonymous. (2017). Stories from my time as a spy. Bond Publishers.
  
  Teen sleep habits. (2021). Sleep Survey Weekly.

• reference-never-cited

  APA 7

  The other direction: an entry nothing in the text points to. APA: each work in the list must be cited in the text.

  Expected: Never cited: entry 2

  Result: Matches

  Rule source: APA Style, Basic Principles of Citation

  Show the test text

  Waiting times have grown (Luna, 2020).
  
  References
  
  Luna, A. (2020). Title. Journal A, 1, 1-9.
  
  Okoye, U. (2018). Title. Journal B, 2, 1-9.

• bibliography-uncited-is-info

  Harvard (Cite Them Right)

  Under a Bibliography heading, listing works read but not cited is allowed, so the uncited entry is reported as information, not as an error.

  Expected: Never cited: entry 2 (as information)

  Result: Matches

  Rule source: UWE Bristol, Introduction to referencing

  Show the test text

  Waiting times have grown (Luna, 2020).
  
  Bibliography
  
  Luna, A. (2020) Title. Journal A, 1, pp. 1-9.
  
  Okoye, U. (2018) Title. Journal B, 2, pp. 1-9.

• false-positive-parentheses

  APA 7

  Statistics, table and figure pointers, editorial brackets, a year range and a named event followed by a year are not citations. 'the Great Recession (2008)' may be shown as a possible citation, never as missing.

  Expected: Nothing to report

  Result: Matches

  Rule source: APA Style, Parenthetical Versus Narrative In-Text Citations

  Show the test text

  Participants (n = 30) completed the scale (M = 4.2, SD = 1.1). The effect was significant (p < .05; see Table 3 and Figure 2). Data from the Great Recession (2008) and from 2019–2021 (the COVID-19 period) were excluded [sic]. Results matched earlier work (Koehler, 2016).
  
  References
  
  Koehler, D. J. (2016). Title. Journal A, 1, 1-9.

• apa-nd-suffixes-in-press

  APA 7

  n.d. takes letter suffixes after a hyphen; 'in press' is a date. None of these has a four-digit year.

  Expected: Nothing to report

  Result: Matches

  Rule source: APA Style, Works With the Same Author and Same Date; APA Style: Missing information

  Show the test text

  Two undated posts make the point (Dreschke, n.d.-a, n.d.-b), and a forthcoming paper tests it (Zhou, in press).
  
  References
  
  Dreschke, M. (n.d.-a). First post. Blog.
  
  Dreschke, M. (n.d.-b). Second post. Blog.
  
  Zhou, L. (in press). Forthcoming work. Journal Z.

• appendix-after-references

  APA 7

  Citations in an appendix after the list count: Okoye is cited there, so it is not never-cited; Okafor is cited there and not listed. Run on the text as one paste.

  Expected: No entry: Okafor, 2019

  Result: Matches

  Rule source: APA Style, Basic Principles of Citation

  Show the test text

  Waiting times have grown (Luna, 2020).
  
  References
  
  Luna, A. (2020). Title. Journal A, 1, 1-9.
  
  Okoye, U. (2018). Title. Journal B, 2, 1-9.
  
  Appendix A
  
  The interview guide adapts an earlier instrument (Okoye, 2018) and a pilot (Okafor, 2019).

• ctr-harvard-basic

  Harvard (Cite Them Right)

  Cite Them Right Harvard: 'and' (never '&') with two or three authors, all named; et al. from four authors; the list names every author.

  Expected: Nothing to report

  Result: Matches

  Rule source: UWE Bristol, Cite Them Right Harvard: in-text citations

  Show the test text

  In a recent study (Handy, 1987) management is described as an art, as defined by Mintzberg (1983). Gremlin and Jenking (1981) disagree, and a later study (Kudless, Oxman and Swackhamer, 2008) tested both. Kotler et al. (1987) extend the model (Kotler et al., 1987).
  
  References
  
  Gremlin, A. and Jenking, B. (1981) Title. Publisher.
  
  Handy, C. (1987) Title. Publisher.
  
  Kotler, P., Armstrong, G., Saunders, J. and Wong, V. (1987) Title. Publisher.
  
  Kudless, D., Oxman, E. and Swackhamer, F. (2008) Title. Journal A, 1, pp. 1-9.
  
  Mintzberg, H. (1983) Title. Publisher.

• ctr-harvard-secondary

  Harvard (Cite Them Right)

  Harvard's 'cited by' and 'citing' forms (no comma before the year): only the secondary source is listed.

  Expected: Nothing to report

  Result: Matches

  Rule source: UWE Bristol, Cite Them Right Harvard: in-text citations

  Show the test text

  Melack and Thompson (1971, cited by Rowley 1991) developed the McGill Archaeology questionnaire. Rowley (1991, citing Melack and Thompson 1971) refers to it again.
  
  References
  
  Rowley, J. (1991) Title. Publisher.

• ctr-harvard-multiple-with-pages

  Harvard (Cite Them Right)

  Several works with page ranges in one bracket; a hyphenated page range is not a year range.

  Expected: No entry: Fujiwara, 2021

  Result: Matches

  Rule source: UWE Bristol, Cite Them Right Harvard: in-text citations

  Show the test text

  A number of environmental studies (Karlhofer, 2018; Town, 2018, pp. 320-334; Barkhov et al., 2019; Fujiwara, 2021, pp. 23-25) considered the question.
  
  References
  
  Barkhov, A., Bell, B., Cruz, C. and Dahl, D. (2019) Title. Journal A, 1, pp. 1-9.
  
  Karlhofer, E. (2018) Title. Publisher.
  
  Town, F. (2018) Title. Journal B, 2, pp. 300-340.

• ctr-harvard-same-year-letters

  Harvard (Cite Them Right)

  The correct use of letters, so nothing is flagged (the counterpart of harvard-suffix-ambiguous).

  Expected: Nothing to report

  Result: Matches

  Rule source: UWE Bristol, Cite Them Right Harvard: in-text citations

  Show the test text

  Jones (2012a) provides a useful overview of evidence based practice. This has been further refined in her latest book (Jones, 2012b).
  
  References
  
  Jones, P. (2012a) Evidence Based Medicine. Blackwell Publishing.
  
  Jones, P. (2012b) International Evidence Based Medicine. Redcliffe Press.

• chicago-author-date

  Chicago author-date

  Chicago author-date: no comma between name and year, abbreviated page ranges (1842–43 is pages, not a year), the year after the names with no brackets in the entry, a family-name-first entry with no comma (Liu Xinwu), and et al. inside the list entry.

  Expected: Nothing to report

  Result: Matches

  Rule source: The Chicago Manual of Style, Author-Date: Sample Citations

  Show the test text

  Student activism splits by party (Binder and Kidder 2022, 117–18). Typecasting is the novel's subject (Yu 2020, 45), as it is in translation (Liu 2021, 279). Belonging is negotiated daily (Kwon 2022, 1842–43), and life can be detected on video (Snyder et al. 2025, 9–10).
  
  References
  
  Binder, Amy J., and Jeffrey L. Kidder. 2022. The Channels of Student Activism: How the Left and Right Are Winning (and Losing) in Campus Politics Today. University of Chicago Press.
  
  Kwon, Hyeyoung. 2022. “Inclusion Work: Children of Immigrants Claiming Membership in Everyday Life.” American Journal of Sociology 127 (6): 1818–59. https://doi.org/10.1086/720277.
  
  Liu Xinwu. 2021. The Wedding Party. Translated by Jeremy Tiang. Amazon Crossing.
  
  Snyder, Carl D., Manuel Bedrossian, Casey Barr, et al. 2025. “Extant Life Detection Using Label-Free Video Microscopy in Analog Aquatic Environments.” PLOS ONE 20 (3): e0318239. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0318239.
  
  Yu, Charles. 2020. Interior Chinatown. Pantheon Books.

• ieee-locators-and-lists

  IEEE

  IEEE numbers on the line in square brackets, separate brackets for each number, locators inside the bracket ([3, pp. 5–10]). Number 7 has no entry; entry 6 is never cited.

  Expected: No entry: [7]. Never cited: entry 6 (as one to check)

  Result: Matches

  Rule source: IEEE Reference Guide, version 3.28.2025

  Show the test text

  According to [1], the model converges; as shown by Brown [4], [5]; as mentioned earlier [2], [4], [5]; Wood et al. [3] agree. See [3, pp. 5–10] and [3, Fig. 1]. A recent result [7] disagrees.
  
  References
  
  [1] A. Author, “Title one,” J. A, vol. 1, pp. 1–9, 2020.
  
  [2] B. Author, “Title two,” J. B, vol. 2, pp. 1–9, 2021.
  
  [3] C. Wood, D. Author, and E. Author, “Title three,” J. C, vol. 3, pp. 1–9, 2022.
  
  [4] F. Brown, “Title four,” J. D, vol. 4, pp. 1–9, 2019.
  
  [5] F. Brown, “Title five,” J. E, vol. 5, pp. 1–9, 2020.
  
  [6] G. Author, “Title six,” J. F, vol. 6, pp. 1–9, 2018.

• numeric-range-expansion

  IEEE

  A number inside a range is cited: [1]–[4], [5-7] and [8, 9] cover entries 1 to 9. The IEEE guide now asks for every number written out, so a range may get a style note, never an orphan.

  Expected: Nothing to report

  Result: Matches

  Rule source: IEEE Reference Guide, version 3.28.2025

  Show the test text

  Prior work [1]–[4] and later studies [5-7] agree, as do two recent reports [8, 9].
  
  References
  
  [1] A. One, “T1,” J., 2020.
  
  [2] B. Two, “T2,” J., 2020.
  
  [3] C. Three, “T3,” J., 2020.
  
  [4] D. Four, “T4,” J., 2020.
  
  [5] E. Five, “T5,” J., 2020.
  
  [6] F. Six, “T6,” J., 2020.
  
  [7] G. Seven, “T7,” J., 2020.
  
  [8] H. Eight, “T8,” J., 2020.
  
  [9] I. Nine, “T9,” J., 2020.

• vancouver-parentheses-and-statistics

  Vancouver

  Vancouver numbers in round brackets, a hyphen for an inclusive run and commas otherwise. Numbers inside a statistics bracket, a year range and a table pointer are not citations.

  Expected: Never cited: entry 6

  Result: Matches

  Rule source: Imperial College London Library, Vancouver style: citing

  Show the test text

  Recent research (1) indicates the number of duplicate papers is increasing. Several studies (2-4) have examined it. As emphasised by Watkins (5), carers need support. In 120 patients aged 18-65 (95% CI 1.2-3.4; p < 0.05) seen during 1990-1995 (Table 2), the effect held.
  
  References
  
  1. Author A. Title one. J A. 2020;1:1-9.
  
  2. Author B. Title two. J B. 2020;2:1-9.
  
  3. Author C. Title three. J C. 2020;3:1-9.
  
  4. Author D. Title four. J D. 2020;4:1-9.
  
  5. Watkins E. Title five. J E. 2020;5:1-9.
  
  6. Author F. Title six. J F. 2020;6:1-9.

• vancouver-superscript

  Vancouver

  Superscript numbers as Unicode characters; the same case as a .docx with superscript runs must give the same answer. Plain digits that lost their superscript on paste ('research1') are out of scope and the page should say so.

  Expected: Nothing to report

  Result: Matches

  Rule source: Imperial College London Library, Vancouver style: citing

  Show the test text

  Recent research¹ indicates the number of duplicate papers is increasing, and several studies²⁻⁴ have examined it.
  
  References
  
  1. Author A. Title one. J A. 2020;1:1-9.
  
  2. Author B. Title two. J B. 2020;2:1-9.
  
  3. Author C. Title three. J C. 2020;3:1-9.
  
  4. Author D. Title four. J D. 2020;4:1-9.

• vancouver-superscript-units

  Vancouver

  A unit's power is not a citation number: kg/m² and cm³ are a squared and a cubed unit, so entry 2, which nothing cites, must still be reported as never cited. The citation numbers sit after the full stop, where AMA places them, and each sentence keeps its own.

  Expected: Never cited: entry 2

  Result: Matches

  Rule source: Imperial College London Library, Vancouver style: citing

  Show the test text

  Obesity, defined as a body mass index of 30 kg/m² or more, is rising in adults.¹ Tumours larger than 12 cm³ were left out of the trial.³ Diet plays a part in both.⁴
  
  References
  
  1. Author A. Title one. J A. 2020;1:1-9.
  
  2. Author B. Title two. J B. 2020;2:1-9.
  
  3. Author C. Title three. J C. 2020;3:1-9.
  
  4. Author D. Title four. J D. 2020;4:1-9.

• mla-author-page

  MLA 9

  MLA has no year in the citation: author alone, author and page with no comma, two authors with 'and', and a short title that picks between works by the same lead author.

  Expected: Nothing to report

  Result: Matches

  Rule source: MLA Style Center, In-text citations: an overview; MLA Style Center: Final quiz in text citations; MLA Style Center: Same author different coauthors

  Show the test text

  At least one researcher has broken new ground on the subject (Baron). Reading is “just half of literacy. The other half is writing” (Baron 194). Some scholars have advocated that critics move away from readings that focus on what might be hidden in a text (Best and Marcus). Collaboration changes authorship (Taylor et al., “Collaboration”), and so does cowriting (Taylor et al., “Cowriting”).
  
  References
  
  Baron, Naomi S. “Redefining Reading: The Impact of Digital Communication Media.” PMLA, vol. 128, no. 1, Jan. 2013, pp. 193–200.
  
  Best, Stephen, and Sharon Marcus. “Title.” Journal A, vol. 1, no. 1, 2009.
  
  Taylor, Sandy, et al. “Collaboration in the Twenty-First Century.” Journal of Collaborative Writing, vol. 20, no. 1, 2017, pp. 15-25.
  
  Taylor, Sandy, et al. “Cowriting Papers.” Sharing Ideas, vol. 2, no. 1, 2017, pp. 26-35.

• mla-date-differs-not-error

  MLA 9

  In MLA a date in the prose is extra information and need not match the entry (here the original 1978 date and a 1979 edition), so there is no year mismatch, and the page-only citation (39) is keyed to the name in the sentence.

  Expected: Nothing to report

  Result: Matches

  Rule source: MLA Style Center: Dates of works

  Show the test text

  In Orientalism (1978), Edward W. Said writes, “Men have always divided the world up into regions having either real or imagined distinction from each other” (39).
  
  References
  
  Said, Edward W. Orientalism. Vintage Books, 1979.

• mla-missing-entry

  MLA 9

  An MLA orphan is found by author alone, with no year to help.

  Expected: No entry: Kiernan 12

  Result: Matches

  Rule source: MLA Style Center, In-text citations: an overview

  Show the test text

  Reading is “just half of literacy” (Baron 194), and writing is the other half (Kiernan 12).
  
  References
  
  Baron, Naomi S. “Redefining Reading: The Impact of Digital Communication Media.” PMLA, vol. 128, no. 1, Jan. 2013, pp. 193–200.

• notes-style-declined

  Chicago notes

  A footnote style: the page says it checks author-date and numbered styles only, and reports nothing. '(Pantheon Books, 2020)' inside a note looks exactly like an author-date citation and must not be one.

  Expected: Nothing to report

  Result: Matches

  Rule source: Chicago Manual of Style

  Show the test text

  Yu’s novel satirises typecasting.1 Later critics agreed.2
  
  Notes
  
  1. Charles Yu, Interior Chinatown (Pantheon Books, 2020), 45.
  2. Amy J. Binder and Jeffrey L. Kidder, The Channels of Student Activism (University of Chicago Press, 2022), 117–18.
  
  Bibliography
  
  Binder, Amy J., and Jeffrey L. Kidder. The Channels of Student Activism. University of Chicago Press, 2022.
  Yu, Charles. Interior Chinatown. Pantheon Books, 2020.

• east-asian-names-same-surname

  APA 7

  Hyphenated initials (J.-H.) pick between two first authors with the same surname; a bare 'Kim (2019)' then fits both and is ambiguous, not missing. One-syllable surnames such as Li must still match.

  Expected: Kim, 2019: fits more than one entry

  Result: Matches

  Rule source: APA Style, Authors With the Same Surname; APA Style, Personal Communications

  Show the test text

  Two studies used the same scale (Zhang & Li, 2020). Two others did not (J.-H. Kim, 2019; S. Kim, 2019), and Kim (2019) does not say which sample was larger.
  
  References
  
  Kim, J.-H. (2019). Title one. Journal A, 1, 1-9.
  
  Kim, S. (2019). Title two. Journal B, 2, 1-9.
  
  Zhang, W., & Li, X. (2020). Title three. Journal C, 3, 1-9.

• group-author-initialism-undefined

  APA 7

  An abbreviation never defined in the text still points at its group author: the citation is matched, and the note says to define it the first time, as APA's NIMH example does.

  Expected: Note: define abbreviation

  Result: Matches

  Rule source: APA Style, Author-Date Citation System

  Show the test text

  Obesity worldwide has nearly tripled since 1975 (WHO, 2020).
  
  References
  
  World Health Organization. (2020). Obesity and overweight. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/obesity-and-overweight

• group-author-mixed-case-abbreviation

  APA 7

  An abbreviation with small letters in it (DfE, DoH, DfES) is defined once in square brackets and used after that, as APA's NIMH example shows for any group author. It names the group, so neither citation is missing and neither entry is uncited.

  Expected: Nothing to report

  Result: Matches

  Rule source: APA Style, Author-Date Citation System

  Show the test text

  Teachers reported rising workload (Department for Education [DfE], 2019). The next survey found the same pattern (DfE, 2020).
  
  References
  
  Department for Education. (2019). Teacher workload: Survey findings. Author.
  
  Department for Education. (2020). Teacher workload: Follow-up survey. Author.

• group-author-mixed-case-undefined

  APA 7

  DfE spells Department for Education with its minor word kept. Never defined in the text, it still points at its group author: the citation is matched, and the note says to define it the first time.

  Expected: Note: define abbreviation

  Result: Matches

  Rule source: APA Style, Author-Date Citation System

  Show the test text

  Teacher workload rose again in the most recent national survey (DfE, 2020).
  
  References
  
  Department for Education. (2020). Teacher workload: Follow-up survey. Author.

• narrative-and-colleagues

  APA 7

  'Smith and colleagues' is a narrative form of et al. for a work with three or more authors, and links to Smith's entry.

  Expected: Nothing to report

  Result: Matches

  Rule source: MLA Style Center

  Show the test text

  Smith and colleagues (2020) reported the same pattern in older adults.
  
  References
  
  Smith, J., Lee, K., & Patel, R. (2020). Title. Journal F, 6, 1-9.

• stopword-surnames

  APA 7

  Surnames that are also common English words (Do, An) are names: neither citation is missing and neither entry is never cited.

  Expected: Nothing to report

  Result: Matches

  Rule source: doi.org; APA Style, Author-Date Citation System

  Show the test text

  Expectation maximization is explained step by step (Do & Batzoglou, 2008), and An (2019) applied it to imaging.
  
  References
  
  An, J. (2019). Title. Journal A, 1, 1-9.
  
  Do, C. B., & Batzoglou, S. (2008). What is the expectation maximization algorithm? Nature Biotechnology, 26(8), 897-899.

• numeric-unnumbered-list-order

  IEEE

  A numbered list pasted without its numbers: the list's order is taken as the numbering, and the report says so.

  Expected: Note: list order as numbers

  Result: Matches

  Rule source: IEEE Reference Guide, version 3.28.2025

  Show the test text

  Earlier models [1] and later ones [2] differ in depth.
  
  References
  
  A. One, “Title one,” J. A, vol. 1, pp. 1–9, 2020.
  
  B. Two, “Title two,” J. B, vol. 2, pp. 1–9, 2021.

• vancouver-first-mention-order

  Vancouver

  ICMJE: references are numbered consecutively in the order they are first mentioned, so (2) before (1) gets a note. Both entries are cited.

  Expected: Note: numbering order

  Result: Matches

  Rule source: ICMJE Recommendations, Preparing a Manuscript for Submission

  Show the test text

  Later work (2) built on earlier trials (1).
  
  References
  
  1. Author A. Title one. J A. 2020;1:1-9.
  
  2. Author B. Title two. J B. 2020;2:1-9.

• heading-variants

  APA 7

  The list is found under each common heading, with or without a number or a colon, in any case. Okoye is never cited under every one of them.

  Expected: Never cited: entry 2

  Result: Matches

  Rule source: Turnitin Guides, How exclusion filters refine the Similarity Report; APA Style, Basic Principles of Citation

  Show the test text

  Waiting times have grown (Luna, 2020).
  
  Reference List
  
  Luna, A. (2020). Title. Journal A, 1, 1-9.
  
  Okoye, U. (2018). Title. Journal B, 2, 1-9.

• two-box-input

  APA 7

  The list pasted in its own box, with no heading in the text, is read the same way.

  Expected: Never cited: entry 2

  Result: Matches

  Rule source: APA Style, Basic Principles of Citation

  Show the test text

  Waiting times have grown (Luna, 2020).
  
  (Reference list box)
  
  Luna, A. (2020). Title. Journal A, 1, 1-9.
  
  Okoye, U. (2018). Title. Journal B, 2, 1-9.

• numbered-apa-list

  APA 7

  An author-date list someone numbered is still author-date: the numbers in the list do not make the citations numbered.

  Expected: Nothing to report

  Result: Matches

  Rule source: APA Style, Basic Principles of Citation

  Show the test text

  Waiting times have grown (Luna, 2020), as earlier work found (Okoye, 2018).
  
  References
  
  1. Luna, A. (2020). Title. Journal A, 1, 1-9.
  
  2. Okoye, U. (2018). Title. Journal B, 2, 1-9.

• mixed-styles

  APA 7

  A numbered citation inside an author-date text gets a style note, never a missing row: the checker does not guess which style is the slip.

  Expected: Note: mixed styles

  Result: Matches

  Rule source: APA Style, Basic Principles of Citation

  Show the test text

  Waiting times have grown (Luna, 2020), as reported elsewhere [3].
  
  References
  
  Luna, A. (2020). Title. Journal A, 1, 1-9.

• false-positive-prose-years

  APA 7

  Years in prose, a sample size, a study phase and a named event with a year are not citations. Only Luna (2020) is one.

  Expected: Nothing to report

  Result: Matches

  Rule source: APA Style, Parenthetical Versus Narrative In-Text Citations

  Show the test text

  Enrolment rose between 2010 and 2015 (n = 40), in the second phase (Phase 2, 2021) and after the Great Recession (2008), as Luna (2020) notes.
  
  References
  
  Luna, A. (2020). Title. Journal A, 1, 1-9.

• apa-statistics-superscripts

  APA 7

  R² and χ² are statistics written with a superscript 2, not numbered citations, so an APA text that reports them is not mixing in a numbered style and has nothing to report.

  Expected: Nothing to report

  Result: Matches

  Rule source: APA Style, Author-Date Citation System

  Show the test text

  Sleep length explained a third of the variance in recall, R² = .32 (Luna, 2020). The difference between the groups held, χ²(1) = 4.2, p = .04, as Okoye (2018) also found.
  
  References
  
  Luna, A. (2020). Title. Journal A, 1, 1-9.
  
  Okoye, U. (2018). Title. Journal B, 2, 1-9.

• prose-mention-with-year

  APA 7

  APA's rare narrative form puts the year in the sentence with no brackets ('In 2016, Koehler noted'): Dixon is cited, not never-cited.

  Expected: Nothing to report

  Result: Matches

  Rule source: APA Style, Parenthetical Versus Narrative In-Text Citations

  Show the test text

  As Dixon showed in 2019, reading speed falls with age.
  
  References
  
  Dixon, G. (2019). Title. Journal A, 1, 1-9.

• prose-year-differs

  APA 7

  APA's rare narrative form puts the year in the sentence with no brackets ('In 2016, Koehler noted'). Here the year (2018) is not the entry's (2020), so the checker cannot be sure the sentence cites Luna: it goes under a second look with both years, and is neither called never cited nor said to have no year.

  Expected: Named in the text but not cited, to look at again: entry 1

  Result: Matches

  Rule source: APA Style, Parenthetical Versus Narrative In-Text Citations

  Show the test text

  Short sleep lowers recall (Smith, 2019). In 2018, Luna found the same effect across school terms.
  
  References
  
  Luna, A. (2020). Title. Journal A, 1, 1-9.
  
  Smith, J. (2019). Title. Journal B, 2, 1-9.

• same-surname-wrong-year

  APA 7

  Two entries share a surname. A surname inside a citation belongs to the entry that citation names, so Smith B (2019), which no citation points to, is never cited, not 'named without a year'. No Smith 2020 is listed, so that citation has no entry.

  Expected: No entry: Smith, 2020. Never cited: entry 2

  Result: Matches

  Rule source: APA Style, Basic Principles of Citation

  Show the test text

  Earlier work found the effect (Smith, 2020). Later work (Smith, 2018) agrees with it.
  
  References
  
  Smith, A. (2018). Title one. Journal A, 1, 1-9.
  
  Smith, B. (2019). Title two. Journal B, 2, 1-9.

• secondary-original-also-listed

  APA 7

  APA lists only the source you read. When the original is in the list as well, it is not reported as never cited; a note says APA would list the secondary source only.

  Expected: Note: secondary original listed

  Result: Matches

  Rule source: APA Style, Secondary Sources

  Show the test text

  Attention declines with age (Rabbitt, 1982, as cited in Lyon et al., 2014).
  
  References
  
  Lyon, A., Moore, B., & Neal, C. (2014). Title. Journal A, 1, 1-9.
  
  Rabbitt, P. (1982). Title. Journal B, 2, 1-9.

• example-essay

  APA 7

  The page's worked example: five real papers and four deliberate slips (a wrong year, a misspelt name, a real paper cited but left out of the list, and a listed paper never cited).

  Expected: No entry: Tversky & Kahneman, 1992. Never cited: entry 5. Braun & Clarke, 2008: year differs (2008 for 2006). Kahnemann and Tversky, 1979: name differs (Kahnemann for Kahneman)

  Result: Matches

  Rule source: doi.org; doi.org; doi.org; doi.org; doi.org; NeurIPS proceedings; APA Style, Basic Principles of Citation

  Show the test text

  Thematic analysis is one of the most widely used approaches in qualitative psychology (Braun & Clarke, 2008). People weigh a loss more heavily than a gain of the same size (Kahneman & Tversky, 1979; Tversky & Kahneman, 1992). Kahnemann and Tversky (1979) put it as losses looming larger than gains. Deep learning lets models learn representations of data with several levels of abstraction (LeCun et al., 2015, p. 436). Ioannidis (2005) argued that small studies and flexible analyses make many published findings unreliable.
  
  References
  
  Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77–101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa
  
  Ioannidis, J. P. A. (2005). Why most published research findings are false. PLoS Medicine, 2(8), e124. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.0020124
  
  Kahneman, D., & Tversky, A. (1979). Prospect theory: An analysis of decision under risk. Econometrica, 47(2), 263–291. https://doi.org/10.2307/1914185
  
  LeCun, Y., Bengio, Y., & Hinton, G. (2015). Deep learning. Nature, 521(7553), 436–444. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature14539
  
  Vaswani, A., Shazeer, N., Parmar, N., Uszkoreit, J., Jones, L., Gomez, A. N., Kaiser, Ł., & Polosukhin, I. (2017). Attention is all you need. Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems, 30.

Test documents are short passages made up for testing unless a style guide's own example is quoted; only names, dates and numbers matter to the matcher.