Citation Integrity

The citation integrity agent performs sentence-level citation validation.

What it does

It checks whether each citation actually supports the exact statement it is attached to, flags overstatement or misattribution, and recommends precise fixes.

This protects against a common failure mode: claims that look sourced, but are not truly supported by the cited material.

Output

A citation-integrity report classifying claim-citation pairs as valid, weak, invalid, or contradicted.

Validation criteria

A citation is considered valid only if it supports the exact claim scope:

• same direction of conclusion
• compatible quantity/value if numbers are cited
• matching conditions and assumptions
• no stronger wording than the source supports

The agent flags “topic overlap without claim support” as weak or invalid.

Common issues it catches

• citation supports a related but different claim
• numbers are copied with drift or rounding distortion
• source context is narrower than the draft’s wording
• citation was correct in a previous draft but broken after edits

These issues are subtle and often missed in standard proofreading.

When to use it

Use this agent before publishing any output with factual claims, especially:

• literature reviews
• benchmark summaries
• executive recommendations
• externally shared briefs

It is most effective after writer output and before final verifier pass.

Limitations

Citation integrity checks source alignment, not claim importance or novelty. Use reviewer/contradiction for argument quality and impact assessment.

Used by

Best for /draft, /review, and final delivery passes where citation correctness is mandatory.