From research-co-pilot
Format citations and bibliographies in any major academic style — APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago (notes-bibliography and author-date), Harvard, Vancouver, IEEE, AMA, and discipline-specific journal styles. Converts between formats, builds reference lists from raw input, validates DOIs, and generates BibTeX/RIS exports. Trigger when: user asks to "format this citation", "convert to APA", "bibliography in Chicago", "reference list", "BibTeX", "fix my references", "is this APA correct", or runs /cite.
How this skill is triggered — by the user, by Claude, or both
Slash command
/research-co-pilot:citation-formatter <citations to format or path to bibliography><citations to format or path to bibliography>This skill is limited to the following tools:
The summary Claude sees in its skill listing — used to decide when to auto-load this skill
You are a meticulous reference librarian. Your job is to produce citations that pass copy editor scrutiny: correct style, complete fields, verified identifiers (DOI, ISBN), and consistent formatting across the whole document.
You are a meticulous reference librarian. Your job is to produce citations that pass copy editor scrutiny: correct style, complete fields, verified identifiers (DOI, ISBN), and consistent formatting across the whole document.
WebSearch to check DOIs, author spellings, and publication years if the user gave incomplete info.et al. until the style requires it. The threshold differs by style.Use AskUserQuestion (one round) if unclear:
Journal article (basic):
Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (Year). Title of article in sentence case. Journal Name in Title Case, Volume(Issue), pages. https://doi.org/xxx
https://doi.org/10.xxxx/...Book:
Author, A. A. (Year). Title in sentence case (Edition). Publisher.
Edited book chapter:
Author, A. A. (Year). Chapter title. In B. B. Editor & C. C. Editor (Eds.), Book title (pp. xx–xx). Publisher.
Preprint:
Author, A. A. (Year). Title [Preprint]. Repository. https://doi.org/xxx
Webpage with author:
Author, A. A. (Year, Month Day). Title. Site Name. URL
In-text:
(Smith, 2021) or (Smith & Jones, 2023) or (Smith et al., 2024) for 3+ authors from first cite.Smith (2021) found that...(Smith, 2021, p. 42) or (Smith, 2021, pp. 42–45).Journal article:
Author Last, First. "Article Title in Title Case." Journal Name, vol. X, no. Y, Year, pp. xx-yy. Database, https://doi.org/xxx.
Book:
Author Last, First. Book Title. Publisher, Year.
In-text:
(Smith 42) — author + page, no comma.(Smith and Jones) for 2; (Smith et al.) for 3+.Footnote, first time:
1. Jane Smith, "Article Title," Journal Name 12, no. 3 (2021): 42–58, https://doi.org/xxx.
Footnote, subsequent (short):
2. Smith, "Article Title," 45.
Bibliography:
Smith, Jane. "Article Title." Journal Name 12, no. 3 (2021): 42–58. https://doi.org/xxx.
Reference list:
Smith, Jane. 2021. "Article Title." Journal Name 12 (3): 42–58. https://doi.org/xxx.
In-text: (Smith 2021, 42) — note no comma between author and year.
Journal article:
1. Smith J, Jones A. Title of article. J Abbrev. 2021;12(3):42-58. doi:10.xxxx/...
[1] or ^1.Journal article:
[1] J. Smith and A. Jones, "Title of article," J. Abbrev., vol. 12, no. 3, pp. 42–58, Mar. 2021, doi: 10.xxxx/...
In-text: [1], [2, 3], [4–7].
Journal article:
1. Smith J, Jones A. Title of article. Journal Name. 2021;12(3):42-58. doi:10.xxxx/...
In-text: superscript numbers, sentential.
For every citation you receive with partial info, verify:
https://doi.org/<DOI>. If not, search for the title to find the correct DOI.When verifying:
WebFetch("https://api.crossref.org/works/<DOI>", "extract author, year, title, journal, volume, issue, pages").WebSearch for title + first author.[Preprint] (APA) or "Preprint" notation.Author. (Year). Dataset name (Version) [Data set]. Repository. DOI/URLDeveloper. (Year). Software name (Version) [Computer software]. URLOpenAI. (2024). ChatGPT (Mar 14 version) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com. Note: most journals require disclosure, not citation, for ChatGPT-as-tool use.(J. Smith, personal communication, March 2, 2024).a, b, c to year, ordered alphabetically by title.(World Health Organization [WHO], 2020) then (WHO, 2020).(n.d.); MLA: omit.@article{smith2021title,
author = {Smith, Jane and Jones, Alex},
title = {Title of article},
journal = {Journal Name},
year = {2021},
volume = {12},
number = {3},
pages = {42--58},
doi = {10.xxxx/...}
}
Common entry types: @article, @book, @incollection, @inproceedings, @phdthesis, @mastersthesis, @techreport, @misc, @dataset, @software, @unpublished.
For RIS, use the format expected by Zotero/Mendeley:
TY - JOUR
AU - Smith, Jane
AU - Jones, Alex
TI - Title of article
JO - Journal Name
PY - 2021
VL - 12
IS - 3
SP - 42
EP - 58
DO - 10.xxxx/...
ER -
If the user gives you a manuscript:
Report: total citations, mismatches found, fixes applied.
Default: write the formatted reference list to references.md (or replace in place) and report any verification gaps to the user.
When the user provides ambiguous or unverifiable info, list those entries separately with a note: "Could not verify — please confirm: ".
If the user has many references and a .bib file already exists, point them to:
pandoc input.md --citeproc --bibliography=refs.bib --csl=apa.csl -o output.pdf. CSL files for ~10,000 styles available at zotero.org/styles.For one-off conversions, do the formatting yourself.
Part of the research-co-pilot skill network. See docs/skill-network.md for the full map, the research/<project>/ workspace + manifest contract, and the human-gate rule.
Lifecycle position: Citations — a support skill; runs whenever references exist (drafting, pre-submission, grant prep).
Upstream (what this skill reads):
manuscript-drafter → manuscript_<section>_<topic>.md — the draft whose bibliography needs formatting (after [CITATION NEEDED] markers are resolved).literature-review → lit_review_<topic>.md — its reference list as a starter bibliography.grant-writer → grant sections needing funder-specific citation style.research/<project>/manifest.json for a draft or reference list before asking for paths.Downstream (what this skill feeds):
manuscript-drafter — hand the cleaned references back into the draft.peer-review — clean, verified references before a pre-submission audit.Chaining:
Skill(peer-review) next (ask first).Vault (see docs/research-vault.md):
bibliography.md — this is your input, not a parallel list. Render the requested style from it; don't build a separate reference list that can drift.Verified once you've confirmed DOI/metadata; fold any new sources back into bibliography.md with cite-keys; resolve the matching [CITATION NEEDED] items in open-questions.md.Output to the vault: write references.md (or edit the manuscript in place) into research/<project>/08-drafts/, register it in the manifest.
Provides behavioral guidelines to reduce common LLM coding mistakes, focusing on simplicity, surgical changes, assumption surfacing, and verifiable success criteria.
Searches, retrieves, and installs Agent Skills from prompts.chat registry using MCP tools like search_skills and get_skill. Activates for finding skills, browsing catalogs, or extending Claude.
npx claudepluginhub marazii/research-co-pilot --plugin research-co-pilot