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refcheck

Official registry Data and databases

Verify academic citations against real databases. Catches hallucinated references, exports BibTeX.

Source code

Install

Add this to your client's MCP configuration (Claude Desktop: claude_desktop_config.json; Cursor: .cursor/mcp.json; VS Code and others use the same "mcpServers" shape).

PYPI package refcheck-mcp
Claude Code 
claude mcp add refcheck -e 'CROSSREF_EMAIL=<CROSSREF_EMAIL>' -e 'S2_API_KEY=<your s2_api_key>' -e 'ELSEVIER_KEY=<your elsevier_key>' -e 'ELSEVIER_INSTTOKEN=<your elsevier_insttoken>' -e 'IEEE_API_KEY=<your ieee_api_key>' -- uvx refcheck-mcp==0.1.0
JSON configuration (Claude Desktop, Cursor, VS Code) 
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "refcheck": {
            "command": "uvx",
            "args": [
                "refcheck-mcp==0.1.0"
            ],
            "env": {
                "CROSSREF_EMAIL": "<CROSSREF_EMAIL>",
                "S2_API_KEY": "<your s2_api_key>",
                "ELSEVIER_KEY": "<your elsevier_key>",
                "ELSEVIER_INSTTOKEN": "<your elsevier_insttoken>",
                "IEEE_API_KEY": "<your ieee_api_key>"
            }
        }
    }
}

Environment variables

  • CROSSREF_EMAIL Your email for Crossref polite pool (faster rate limits)
  • S2_API_KEY secret Semantic Scholar API key (free, from semanticscholar.org/product/api)
  • ELSEVIER_KEY secret Elsevier/Scopus API key (from dev.elsevier.com)
  • ELSEVIER_INSTTOKEN secret Elsevier institutional token for higher rate limits
  • IEEE_API_KEY secret IEEE Xplore API key (from developer.ieee.org)

Frequently asked questions

What is refcheck?

Verify academic citations against real databases. Catches hallucinated references, exports BibTeX.

How do I install refcheck?

It runs on your machine. In Claude Code: claude mcp add refcheck -e 'CROSSREF_EMAIL=<CROSSREF_EMAIL>' -e 'S2_API_KEY=<your s2_api_key>' -e 'ELSEVIER_KEY=<your elsevier_key>' -e 'ELSEVIER_INSTTOKEN=<your elsevier_insttoken>' -e 'IEEE_API_KEY=<your ieee_api_key>' -- uvx refcheck-mcp==0.1.0. For other clients, paste the JSON configuration from this page into their MCP settings.

Does refcheck need an API key?

Yes. It expects S2_API_KEY, ELSEVIER_KEY, ELSEVIER_INSTTOKEN, IEEE_API_KEY, which you set in its configuration.

Is refcheck open source?

Its code is public on GitHub, but the repository does not declare a standard license.

Who maintains refcheck?

It is published by UMN-Choi-Lab. AI.tn lists it but does not maintain or endorse it.

From the official MCP Registry. Listing is not an endorsement: review a server's code and permissions before giving it access to your data.