| name | source_verification |
| description | Verifies source legitimacy — that a paper is real, its venue/arXiv ID is accurate, and its review status is correctly stated. Distinct from citation_accuracy, which checks claim-to-citation matching. |
source_verification — source legitimacy gate
Process
- Confirm existence. Verify the paper actually exists as claimed — not a hallucinated title or a title that resembles a real paper but isn't one. Search for the exact title and confirm a real result comes back.
- Confirm venue/ID accuracy. Check the stated venue (conference/journal) or arXiv ID is correct and matches the paper. A paper claimed as "NeurIPS 2024" that's actually an unpublished arXiv-only preprint is a legitimacy failure.
- Check version consistency. If the paper has multiple arXiv versions (v1, v2, v3...), confirm which version is being cited, since results, numbers, or conclusions can change between versions of the same paper.
- Distinguish preprint from peer-reviewed. Explicitly label whether the source has been peer-reviewed or is a preprint — this affects how much weight the claim should carry downstream (see
evidence skill's tiering).
Anti-Rationalization
- "It sounds like a real paper" — plausibility isn't verification; confirm the exact title returns a real, findable source.
- "arXiv ID looks right" — confirm it actually resolves to the claimed paper, don't just check the format.
- "Preprint vs published doesn't matter for this purpose" — it always matters for evidence tiering; state it regardless of how it will be used downstream.
Evidence
Source verification passes when: the paper's existence is confirmed via a live search/fetch, venue/arXiv ID matches what's claimed, the specific version being cited is identified when multiple exist, and peer-review status is explicitly labeled.
Red Flags
- A paper title that can't be found via search (possible hallucination)
- Venue claimed but not actually verifiable (e.g. "published at ICML" with no evidence of acceptance)
- No version specified when the paper has had substantive revisions
