Manusights Reference Sentry

Flags retracted, expression-of-concern, and corrected references on bioRxiv paper pages.

Reference Sentry checks the reference list of any bioRxiv preprint you open and inline-flags citations that are retracted, have an expression of concern published, or have been corrected. WHY THIS MATTERS Retracted-citation rates rose 47% in published biomed papers between 2020 and 2025. AI-assisted writing tools regularly cite retracted or fabricated DOIs. Reviewers increasingly check the reference list as a sanity test before deeper engagement with a manuscript. Reference Sentry surfaces the same flags a careful reviewer would catch. HOW IT WORKS - Open any bioRxiv paper page. - The extension reads the rendered reference list and extracts DOIs. - It checks each DOI against the Retraction Watch database (live, via Crossref Labs) and Crossref's correction-notice metadata. - Flagged references get a colored badge inline; a summary banner sits above the reference list. WHAT GETS FLAGGED - RETRACTED (red) — the cited paper has been retracted. Do not cite. - EXPRESSION OF CONCERN (orange) — editorial concerns published; verify before citing. - CORRECTION (yellow) — an erratum exists; verify against the corrected version. - HIJACKED JOURNAL (dark red) — cited venue is a known hijacked-journal impersonator. - WITHDRAWN (gray) — cited journal has been removed from DOAJ. PRIVACY The extension only runs on bioRxiv paper pages. It sends DOIs (and a random install identifier) to manusights.com; no page content, no browsing history, no personal information. Full policy: https://manusights.com/extension/privacy ABOUT MANUSIGHTS We build AI peer-review tools for academic researchers. The reference-integrity engine that powers this extension also powers our free reference-integrity tool at manusights.com/tools/reference-integrity and is part of every paid AI review. LIMITS - bioRxiv-only in v0.1 (arXiv, PubMed, Google Scholar planned for future versions). - Rate-limited to roughly 200 lookups per hour per user. Heavy academic-reading sessions may briefly cap out. Bug reports and feedback: erik@manusights.com