Check the sources

Does the paper you cite say what your sentence claims? Check the sources shows you where to look. For each paper a sentence cites, it lists the passages of that paper's PDF that come closest to the sentence, with their page numbers. It runs on this device and takes a moment.

Select a sentence and choose Check the sources:

• LaTeX editor: the magnifier in the selection toolbar. A partial selection grows to the whole sentence, so its citations come along. Double-click a citation key to check the sentence that cites it.

• Visual editor: click in the paragraph, select the sentence on the page, then choose Check the sources in the toolbar. With nothing selected, the whole paragraph is checked.

• PDF: select the sentence, then choose Check the sources. VersoFold finds the sentence in the LaTeX through SyncTeX, so the citations are read from the source, not from the printed numbers. Recompile if it cannot find the sentence.

• A citation: click it in the PDF, then choose Check the sources on its card under References. Every reference card cited in the paper offers the same action. It checks the sentence that cites the reference on the PDF page you are viewing.

A small card opens beside the sentence. Press Escape or × to close it; nothing else on screen changes.

Each cited paper is found through the paper's .bib files and your reference library. It lists up to three passages, best match first: a short quote and its page. Open the page shows that page of the PDF, with the passage highlighted.

Passages are matched by their words, not their meaning. A good match is a place to read, not a verdict. No match does not mean the paper disagrees: it may use other words, or the claim may rest on a table or a figure. Equations and tables often extract poorly. Scanned PDFs have no text to search, because OCR is not included.

When a cited paper has no PDF, the card says so and offers two ways to add one:

• Find the PDF looks for it through the paper's arXiv id, DOI or link, and attaches it to the library record.

• Attach a PDF… attaches a file you already have.

If the paper is in the .bib file but not yet in your reference library, it is added to the library first. The card then checks again. A citation key that is in no .bib file is listed as such: fix the key, or add the entry.

If the sentence has no citation, the card searches every paper in your library that has a PDF, and says that this is a search, not a check. Use it to find a paper the sentence could cite, then cite it as usual (see references).

Ask the agent to judge it opens the agent with a prepared request: the sentence, its file and line, the cited papers and the passages found. Nothing is sent until you send it. The request asks the agent to read the cited pages and give a short verdict for each paper (supported, partly supported, not supported, or can't tell) with the quote and page it rests on, and not to edit the paper.

Agents keep their evidence tools (search_evidence, evidence_inspect, assess_claim_support and evidence_anchor) without the card, for example when you ask one to check every claim in a section.

Pin to the sentence saves the check as a comment on the sentence, labelled Source check. It lists the cited papers, the passages and their pages. Reply with your own reading or the agent's verdict, and resolve the thread when the sentence is settled. There is no separate record to keep up: the thread follows the sentence like any other comment (see comments and review).

When you read a paper in the PDF reader, select a passage and choose Check the sources. The reader matches the passage's citation numbers, or author and year, to the paper's reference list. Cited papers that you have downloaded to your library are checked, and pins go to the reader's comments.

Evidence records saved with earlier versions stay on disk, and agents can still read them.

Related: references, reading, agent, workspace memory & procedures.