Where references come from
A reference in a lesson is a record from a public catalogue. Nobody types it from memory: not you, and not the assistant.
Why
An AI can make up a paper that sounds real. A person can misremember a year. So the app looks each source up, and keeps what the catalogue says.
The catalogues
| Catalogue | Good for |
|---|---|
| Crossref | articles, proceedings and many books: anything with a DOI |
| arXiv | preprints |
| dblp | computer science |
| OpenAlex | a second look at everything |
| Wikidata | books |
| Mathlib's bibliography | the 515 sources Mathlib's own notes cite; it works offline |
All of them are free for anyone to use. None needs an account.
Citing a source
In a draft, open Cite.
- Type an author, a few title words or a year. Or paste a DOI or an arXiv id.
- Find your source in the results.
- Press Cite.
[@key]goes in where your cursor is, and the record goes into the draft's references.
The lesson's list of references is made for you. Each entry says where it was found, such as ✓ Crossref. Click that to open the catalogue's record.
Checking an entry
You can still type an entry by hand. It is marked not checked. Press Check to ask the catalogues. The answer is one of four:
| Answer | Means |
|---|---|
| ✓ confirmed | a catalogue has this source, and the details agree |
| differs | a catalogue has it with other details, and the app shows them |
| not found in any catalogue | none of them has it |
| catalogues not reached | no connection, or no answer |
The app never corrects an entry on its own. You decide.
The assistant follows the same rule
The assistant can search the catalogues and cite a record. It cannot write an author, a title or a year itself. If no catalogue has a source, it names the source in words and says it is not verified.
What leaves your computer
Only your search words, or the identifier you pasted. Nothing else about you or your work.
A lookup happens only when you ask for one: a search, a Cite or a Check. After that the lesson shows its references offline.
Where it stands
This part of the app is young. Here is what to expect today.
Works well:
- articles with a DOI;
- preprints on arXiv;
- anything Mathlib cites.
Works, with care:
- Books. Wikidata has some textbooks and misses others. Its records can be thin: an edition may lack an author or a publisher. Check a book yourself.
- dblp. It sometimes turns programs away. The app then says so, and the other catalogues still answer.
- OpenAlex. Without an account it allows a small number of requests a day, shared by everyone on your network. It can run out.
Not there yet:
- one switch to turn every lookup off;
- citing a dblp record that has no DOI;
- checking all of a pack's references from its page.
Left out on purpose: zbMATH Open, MathSciNet and Google Scholar. The first has a licence that asks more than the app can promise, the second needs a subscription, and the third gives programs no way in.
How the demo lessons did
The demo lessons cite 16 sources.
- 10 are catalogue records: 6 from Crossref, 2 from Mathlib's bibliography, 1 from arXiv and 1 from OpenAlex.
- 6 are textbooks, kept as written by hand. Wikidata confirms three of them. No catalogue has the other three.
The check also caught one wrong year.