source-bibliography-compiler

Source Bibliography Compiler

What This Skill Does

Compiles a formatted source list or bibliography from raw research notes, organising and standardising entries for publication, editorial records, or compliance documentation.

When To Use This Skill

• You have finished research for an article, documentary, or podcast and need to compile your sources into a clean list
• Your publication or broadcaster requires a source bibliography to accompany a submitted piece
• You need to create an editorial record of all sources consulted for a project, for fact-checking or legal defence purposes
• You want to organise scattered research notes into a structured reference list before writing begins

What You Need To Provide

Required:

• Your raw source information — this can be messy. Provide names, titles, URLs, publication names, dates, interview details, or any other identifying information you have, in whatever format you have it.
• The purpose of the bibliography (publication appendix, internal editorial record, fact-checking reference, academic-style citation)

Optional:

• A preferred citation style (AP, Chicago, APA, Harvard, MLA, or "plain editorial" — a simplified format used by many newsrooms)
• Whether you want sources grouped by type (interviews, documents, publications, data sources) or listed alphabetically
• Whether the bibliography is for public-facing use (published alongside the piece) or internal use only (editorial records)
• Any sources that should be anonymised (e.g., confidential sources listed as "Source A — background interview, March 2026")
• The title of the project or article the bibliography accompanies

How the Assistant Approaches This

1. Inventories and categorises the raw material. the assistant reads through your research notes and identifies each distinct source, categorising them by type: published sources (articles, books, reports), primary documents (court records, government filings, datasets), interviews and personal communications, and online/multimedia sources. This categorisation drives the formatting decisions.

2. Standardises each entry. Every source entry is reformatted to the specified citation style (or plain editorial format if none is specified). Missing fields are flagged rather than guessed — if a publication date is absent, the entry reads "[date unknown]" rather than inventing one. Consistency across all entries is prioritised: if one book entry includes publisher and city, all book entries do.

3. Handles interviews and unpublished sources. Journalistic bibliographies frequently include sources that do not appear in standard citation guides — off-the-record conversations, anonymous sources, unpublished data, FOIA responses, leaked documents. The assistant formats these according to journalistic convention: named interviews with date and context, anonymised sources with a descriptor and date, and documents with as much identifying information as is appropriate for the sensitivity level.

4. Groups or orders entries as specified. If grouping by type is requested, the assistant uses clear section headers (Published Sources, Interviews, Documents, Data and Datasets). If alphabetical order is requested, all sources are listed in a single sequence by author surname or source name. If no preference is stated, the assistant defaults to grouping by type — the most useful format for editorial records.

5. Flags incomplete or problematic entries. If a source cannot be formatted properly because key information is missing (no author, no date, broken URL), the assistant includes the entry with a bracketed note identifying what is needed. This ensures nothing is silently dropped from the bibliography.

Output Format

A formatted source list with clear section headers (if grouped) or a single alphabetical list. Each entry follows the specified citation style consistently. Entries with missing information are flagged with bracketed notes (e.g., "[date needed]", "[confirm author name]"). For internal editorial records, the format includes interview dates, contexts, and confidentiality notes. For public-facing bibliographies, the format is cleaner and omits internal notes. Total length varies with the number of sources — typically 200–800 words for a standard journalistic project.

Quality Criteria

• Every source from the raw notes appears in the compiled bibliography — nothing silently dropped
• Citation format is consistent across all entries — no mixing of styles
• Missing information is flagged with bracketed notes, not guessed or fabricated
• Interviews and unpublished sources are formatted according to journalistic convention
• Anonymised sources are listed without identifying details, with a descriptor and date only
• Grouping or ordering matches the user's specification (or defaults to type-grouped if unspecified)
• The bibliography could serve as a fact-checking reference — every entry provides enough detail to locate the original source

Example

Input

Raw research notes:

Interviewed Dr. Lena Bosch, professor of urban planning at Millbrook University, on Feb 14 2026. 45 min phone interview about transit-oriented development. She sent me her 2024 paper afterwards — "Rethinking Density: Transit Corridors and Housing Affordability in Mid-Sized Cities" in the Journal of Urban Policy, Vol 38, No 2.

Also used the National Transit Authority's annual ridership report from 2025 — downloaded the PDF from their website, nta.gov.example/reports/ridership2025.pdf.

Talked to a city planning official who didn't want to be named — background only, March 3, phone call, about the political resistance to upzoning near transit stations.

Found a good article by Marcus Webb in The Metro Journal, published online Jan 12 2026, "Why Your City's Transit Plan Won't Fix Housing" — used a statistic from that about the 15% density increase near new stations.

Also pulled data from the Census Bureau's 2024 American Community Survey, Table B25031 — median gross rent by bedrooms.

There's a 2023 city council meeting transcript from Greendale City Council where they debated the upzoning ordinance — it's on the city's public records portal, greendale.gov.example/council/minutes/2023-09-14.

Purpose: Internal editorial record for a magazine feature.

Citation style: Plain editorial.

Grouping: By type.

Output

Source Bibliography — Transit-Oriented Development Feature Internal editorial record — not for publication

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Interviews and Personal Communications

Bosch, Dr. Lena. Professor of Urban Planning, Millbrook University. Phone interview, February 14, 2026. 45 minutes. Topic: transit-oriented development and housing affordability in mid-sized cities.

Anonymous city planning official. Background interview (not for attribution), phone, March 3, 2026. Topic: political resistance to upzoning near transit stations.

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Published Sources

Bosch, Lena. "Rethinking Density: Transit Corridors and Housing Affordability in Mid-Sized Cities." Journal of Urban Policy, Vol. 38, No. 2, 2024.

Webb, Marcus. "Why Your City's Transit Plan Won't Fix Housing." The Metro Journal, January 12, 2026. [Online — confirm URL for archival link.]

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Government and Institutional Documents

National Transit Authority. Annual Ridership Report, 2025. nta.gov.example/reports/ridership2025.pdf

Greendale City Council. Meeting transcript, September 14, 2023. Debate on upzoning ordinance. greendale.gov.example/council/minutes/2023-09-14

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Data Sources

U.S. Census Bureau. 2024 American Community Survey, Table B25031: Median Gross Rent by Bedrooms. [Confirm exact download URL for records.]

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Notes: Two entries flagged for completion — confirm the URL for Marcus Webb's Metro Journal article and the exact Census Bureau download link. All other entries verified against the raw research notes.

Known Limitations

• The assistant formats and organises the sources you provide but cannot verify that they are accurate, that URLs are live, or that cited data is correctly attributed. Always spot-check key entries against the original source before relying on the bibliography for fact-checking or legal defence.
• For highly specialised citation formats (legal citation, scientific journal house styles, specific broadcaster compliance formats), the assistant may not match every formatting rule exactly. Provide a sample formatted entry if you need precise conformance to an unusual style.
• The skill works from the information you provide. If your raw notes omit a source entirely, it will not appear in the bibliography. Cross-reference the compiled list against your article or script to ensure nothing is missing.

Related Skills

• copyright-holder-finder — identify the rights holder when a source needs licensing or clearance
• creative-commons-explainer — understand the licence terms for open-access sources in the bibliography
• rights-clearance-checklist — clear all third-party content rights for a production