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A long, low building of pale concrete under a clear blue sky. Its roof is a row of identical saw-tooth roof lights; one is pitched more steeply than the rest, and its glass alone shines citrine yellow. Low planting in front, the sea at the far right.

consistency, not correctness

Reference list checker

Find where your reference list disagrees with itself.

Try the checker
The film: the checker in 25 seconds, on an invented list. It checks consistency; it does not verify that a source exists.
What the film shows, in words
  1. Is your reference list consistent?
  2. 5 references. 8 marks. 6 kinds of fault.
  3. Three lines use a hyphen. One uses an en dash.
  4. Correct one kind: three lines change at once. 8 − 3 = 5 marks; 4 of 5 need attention.
  5. Line 4 repeats line 1: the same letters and digits.
  6. It checks consistency. It never invents a source or a DOI.

The demo: the worked example, one correction at a time

ExampleA short list with a duplicate, a missing year and mixed DOI formats. The references are invented.

Five references, eight marks, six kinds of fault.

Step 1 of 4

Under the lens

Hyphen in a page range where others use an en dash

Three lines use a hyphen. One line uses an en dash.

references
5
need attention
5
duplicates
1

5 of 5 references need attention. The list is not in alphabetical order by first author.

This checks consistency only. It does not verify that sources exist, never supplies DOIs, and does not check for plagiarism.

Now your own list, one reference a line.

Paste it, type on it, undo. The checker never rewrites a reference: you type the correction and the lens answers at once.

references
5
need attention
5
duplicates
1
Live
Style

APA 7 runs every author-date test: a year in brackets, alphabetical order, “et al.” and the full stop after the year, with the three that run in every style: duplicates, page-range dashes and DOI format.

One reference per line. Only your own list is checked.

Every line and its issues

The checker’s full record, in its own words
5references
5need attention
1duplicates
References to fix
#ReferenceIssues
01Adjei, K. (2021). Mobile money and small enterprise growth. Journal of African Business,…Hyphen in a page range where others use an en dash
02Boateng, A., & Mensah, E. (2019) Financial inclusion in Ghana. Accra: Example Press.No full stop after the year
03Owusu, P. et al. (2020). Trust in digital payments. African Journal of Economic Review, …“et al.” in a reference list (APA 7 lists up to 20 authors); DOI written as “doi:”; others use https://doi.org/
04Adjei, K. (2021). Mobile money and small enterprise growth. Journal of African Business,…Duplicate of an earlier reference; Hyphen in a page range where others use an en dash
05Darko, S. Digital finance and informal traders. Ghana Social Science Journal, 17(1), 88-…No year in brackets after the authors; Hyphen in a page range where others use an en dash

Summary

  • Check: The list is not in alphabetical order by first author.
  • Check: 5 of 5 references need attention.
  • Note: This checks consistency only.It does not verify that sources exist, never supplies DOIs, and does not check for plagiarism.
Your full reportReference-list reportTry this form

Practice 11: Research supervision, academic coaching & publication supportFree · instant results on this pageTool owner: Prof. Wisdom Gagakuma and Michael GagakumaVersion 1.0 ·

Your full report

Reference-list report, by email once delivery is connected.

  • Formatting inconsistencies, line by line, in the checker’s own words
  • A missing year in brackets: the one field the checker reads

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What “missing fields” means here. The report is offered as “formatting inconsistencies and missing fields”. The checker reads one field, the year. It does not look for a missing title, journal, volume or page numbers.

How it checks, and where it stops.

  1. 01

    Duplicates are found by comparing each reference with letters and digits only.

  2. 02

    Author-date styles need a year in brackets and alphabetical order; numbered styles need numbers.

  3. 03

    Mixed page-range dashes and mixed DOI formats are flagged against the rest of your list.

Two neighbouring roof lights on a concrete parapet above the sea: the same triangular shape twice, one glazed clear and one glazed citrine.
One thing, made two ways: that is all the checker looks for.

What the checker can recognise: the eight tests, exactly.

Anything not in this list it cannot see: a wrong author, a missing title, a journal that does not exist.

  1. 01

    Duplicate

    A line whose letters and digits are the same as an earlier line’s. Spacing, capitals and punctuation are ignored.

    Every style
  2. 02

    Page-range dash

    Digits, a hyphen, digits on a line, but only when another line has digits, an en dash, digits. A list with hyphens throughout passes. An ISBN, a year span or a DOI with a hyphen between digits is flagged too.

    Every style
  3. 03

    DOI format

    “doi:” on a line when another line uses “https://doi.org/”. The DOI itself is never looked up, corrected or supplied.

    Every style
  4. 04

    Year

    “(2021)”, “(2021a)” or “(n.d.)” somewhere in the line. A year written any other way is flagged, which is every line of a correct Chicago author-date list.

    APA 7, Harvard, Chicago author-date
  5. 05

    Alphabetical order

    The first twelve letters of each line, compared down the list. Two works by one author with a long shared opening can be reported out of order.

    APA 7, Harvard, Chicago author-date
  6. 06

    “et al.”

    The words “et al” anywhere in the line.

    APA 7
  7. 07

    Full stop after the year

    A four-digit year in brackets followed by a space and a capital letter.

    APA 7
  8. 08

    Number

    A number at the start of the line followed by “]” or “.”, such as [1] or 1.

    IEEE, Vancouver

What it cannot tell you

Consistency, not correctness: it cannot tell whether a source exists.

  • It never adds or guesses a DOI.
  • Style guides have many rules; this checks common ones.
  • Quality rule. Never invent a DOI, publication or source; no plagiarism-clearance claim.
The roofline as a band: five triangular roof lights in a row above a concrete wall, their shadows falling in even bars, one of them glazed citrine.

Service · 11 Research supervision, academic coaching & publication support

Academic editing, formatting & referencing (no content authorship)

The checker shows where your list disagrees with itself. Putting a whole thesis or article into one style is a service: editing, formatting and referencing. The researcher remains the author.

Tell us what you needA brief is free to send.
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