brycewang-stanford/validate-bib

Validate Bibliography

Cross-reference all citations in manuscript files against bibliography entries.

Steps

1. Read the bibliography file(s): Find .bib files in the project.

2. Scan manuscript files for citation commands:

   • LaTeX: \cite{}, \citet{}, \citep{}, \citeauthor{}, \citeyear{}
   • Extract all citation keys

3. Cross-reference:

   • Missing entries (CRITICAL): Citation keys in .tex files without matching .bib entries
   • Unused entries (INFO): .bib entries not cited anywhere
   • Potential typos: Citation keys that look similar to existing entries (edit distance <= 2)

4. Check entry quality:

   • Required fields present (author, title, year, journal/booktitle)
   • Author formatting consistent
   • Year values reasonable
   • No encoding issues in special characters

5. Report findings with severity levels.

Notes

• Missing entries are CRITICAL because they cause compilation warnings.
• Unused entries are informational -- the user may want to keep them for future use.