Citation Fixer & Correction Agent

Overview

This skill is the companion to citation-checker. Where the checker audits and reports, the fixer acts. It deploys 3 parallel agents to correct reference metadata, fix APA 7 formatting, and mark citation gaps — then applies all changes to the document and produces a changelog. It creates a backup before editing and never auto-fixes issues that require human judgment.

When to Use This Skill

Use when the user asks you to:

• Fix or correct citations after running citation-checker
• Apply corrections from a verification report
• Clean up APA 7 formatting errors in citations and references
• Add missing DOIs to a reference list
• Fix wrong author names, volumes, or page numbers in references
• Insert citation-needed markers in a draft
• Repair formatting artifacts (stray backslashes, wrong punctuation)

Input Requirements

Required (one of):

1. Document + citation-checker report — the document to fix and the checker's output (from conversation history or a file)
2. Document only — the fixer will run /scholar:citation-checker first, then proceed to fixes

Optional:

• Fix scope — "all", "critical only", "formatting only", or "gaps only"
• Target format — defaults to APA 7

Source Lookup Priority

Agents that search for correct metadata or suggest sources follow a 4-tier lookup chain, checking the researcher's own sources before web searching:

0. ZOTERO: Search the Zotero CSL-JSON library configured in the plugin's `.local.md` file (default: `references/salsu-library.json`) by author, title, year
   ├── Match found → Use structured metadata as ground truth for corrections
   └── No match ↓
1. LOCAL PDFs: Search the local PDFs directory configured in `.local.md` by author surname, title keywords, or topic
   ├── Match found → Read PDF to extract correct metadata or verify content
   └── No match ↓
2. NOTEBOOKLM: Query researcher's NotebookLM notebooks (if available)
   ├── Match found → Use notebook content
   └── No match or not configured ↓
3. WEB SEARCH: Search via WebSearch/WebFetch (fallback)

Why this order:

• Zotero first: CSL-JSON has structured metadata imported from publisher databases — ideal for correcting authors, DOI, volume, pages. Also provides [@citekey] for gap marker suggestions.
• Local PDFs second: For content-level verification or when the reference isn't in Zotero yet.
• NotebookLM third: Researcher's annotated notebooks.
• Web search last: Only for sources not available locally.
• Label suggestions with [ZOTERO], [LOCAL], or [WEB] so the researcher can prioritise.

Safety: What Gets Fixed vs. What Gets Flagged

This is the most important section. The fixer draws a hard line between safe auto-fixes and issues that require human judgment.

Auto-Fixed (applied directly to document)

Flagged for Human Review (NOT auto-fixed)

Agent Architecture

                 ┌──────────────────────────┐
                 │      COORDINATOR         │
                 │  (parse report, backup,  │
                 │   merge, apply fixes)    │
                 └───────────┬──────────────┘
                             │ launches 3 agents in parallel
              ┌──────────────┼──────────────┐
              ▼              ▼              ▼
        ┌──────────┐  ┌──────────┐  ┌──────────┐
        │ Agent A  │  │ Agent B  │  │ Agent C  │
        │ Metadata │  │ Format   │  │ Gap      │
        │ Corrector│  │ Fixer    │  │ Marker   │
        └──────────┘  └──────────┘  └──────────┘

Agent A: Metadata Corrector

Purpose: Fix incorrect publication metadata in references by searching for the real publication details.

Input: References flagged with wrong authors, wrong volumes/issues/pages, missing DOIs, incomplete entries, or "Uncertain" verification status.

Process (4-tier lookup):

Tier 0 — Zotero library (fastest, most reliable for metadata):

1. Read and search the Zotero CSL-JSON library configured in the plugin's .local.md file (default: references/salsu-library.json) for the flagged reference by author family name and issued year
2. If found, use the CSL-JSON fields directly as the correct metadata (authors, title, journal, volume, issue, pages, DOI)
3. Zotero imports metadata from publisher databases — this is authoritative
4. Apply corrections immediately: replace wrong values in the document with Zotero's values

Tier 1 — Local PDFs: 5. Search the local PDFs directory configured in .local.md for the flagged reference's PDF using Glob: **/*AuthorSurname*.pdf, **/*TitleKeyword*.pdf 6. If found, read the PDF's first pages to extract correct metadata

Tier 2 — NotebookLM (if available): 7. Query the researcher's NotebookLM notebooks for the reference

Tier 3 — Web search (fallback): 8. For references NOT found in Zotero, local PDFs, or NotebookLM, web-search: "First Author Surname" "Article Title" "Year" 9. Cross-check returned results against the reference 10. If DOI is missing, search: "Article Title" doi or check the publisher's website 11. For wrong author lists: confirm the correct authors from the publisher page 12. For wrong volume/issue/pages: extract correct metadata from the publisher page or database record

Does NOT fix:

• References marked "Likely Fabricated" — instead reports the closest real match found and flags for human review
• References where web search returns conflicting information — flags as uncertain

Output per fix:

Agent B: Format Fixer

Purpose: Correct all APA 7 formatting violations in both in-text citations and the reference list.

Input: All formatting errors from the checker report.

Fix categories (in priority order):

1. Stray characters — remove backslashes, escaped characters, formatting artifacts
2. DOI format — convert doi:, dx.doi.org, or bare DOIs to https://doi.org/ format
3. Ampersand/and — & inside parenthetical citations, and in narrative citations
4. et al. — use from first citation for 3+ authors; never for 2 authors
5. Capitalisation — sentence case for article/chapter titles; title case for journal names and book titles
6. Italicisation — add markdown italic markers (*...*) for journal names, volumes, and book titles in .md files
7. Edition format — (2nd ed.) not (Second Edition) or (2nd edition)
8. "Retrieved from" — remove (APA 6 convention, not APA 7)
9. Punctuation — period after closing parenthesis of parenthetical citations
10. Author name format — Surname, A. A. with & before last author
11. Page numbers — p. for single page, pp. for range
12. Issue numbers — in parentheses after volume, not italicised

Reference: Read ../../references/apa7-guide.md for the complete formatting rules.

Output per fix:

Agent C: Gap Marker

Purpose: Insert visible markers at uncited claims and suggest potential sources. Does NOT insert actual citations — that requires human judgment about which source to use.

Input: Missing citation flags, citation desert warnings, and over-reliance warnings from the checker report.

Markers inserted:

Source suggestion process (4-tier lookup):

Tier 0 — Zotero library (best — provides ready-to-use citation keys):

1. For each uncited claim, extract key terms from the statement
2. Search the Zotero CSL-JSON library configured in the plugin's .local.md file (default: references/salsu-library.json) by title, abstract, and keyword fields for relevant sources
3. If found, label as [ZOTERO] and include the [@citekey] — the researcher can paste it directly

Tier 1 — Local PDFs: 4. Search the local PDFs directory configured in .local.md for relevant local papers by topic: Glob **/*keyword*.pdf 5. If found, label as [LOCAL]

Tier 2 — NotebookLM (if available): 6. Query NotebookLM for sources related to the uncited claim

Tier 3 — Web search (fallback): 7. Web-search for relevant academic sources: "key terms" site:scholar.google.com or "key terms" journal article 8. Label as [WEB]

9. Suggest 1-3 potential sources with author, year, title, and URL/path/citekey
10. Do NOT insert these as actual citations — list them in the changelog as suggestions

Suggestion format in HTML comments:

<!-- Suggested sources:
- [ZOTERO] Author (Year). Title. Use: [@citekey]
- [LOCAL] Author (Year). Title. Found at: the local PDFs directory configured in `.local.md`/Course/file.pdf
- [WEB] Author (Year). Title. https://doi.org/...
-->

Output per marker:

Execution Process

Step 1: Accept Input

Determine the entry point:

• Document + checker report in conversation: Parse the report from conversation history
• Document + report file: Read the report file
• Document only: Run /scholar:citation-checker first, then proceed

Present a summary:

Found X issues in the checker report: Y auto-fixable, Z for human review. Creating backup and deploying 3 correction agents...

Step 2: Create Backup

Before any edits, copy the original file:

<filename>_backup_YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS.<ext>

Confirm to the user:

Backup saved: Espina_Research_Proposal_OL652E_backup_20260312_143022.md

Step 3: Categorise Issues

Parse the checker report and sort each issue:

• Auto-fixable → assign to Agent A, B, or C
• Human review → collect for the final report

Step 4: Deploy Agents

Launch all 3 agents in parallel using the Agent tool. Each agent receives:

• The document content
• Their assigned subset of issues from the checker report
• Reference files as needed (Agent B gets apa7-guide.md)

Step 5: Merge Results

Collect all proposed fixes from the 3 agents. Check for conflicts:

• If two agents propose changes to the same text, apply in priority order: Metadata (A) > Format (B) > Gap markers (C)
• Metadata changes alter content; format changes alter presentation; gap markers add new text

Step 6: Apply Fixes

Apply all changes to the document using the Edit tool. Apply bottom-to-top (highest line numbers first) to preserve line number accuracy for subsequent edits.

Step 7: Output Report

Produce the changelog and human review report (see Output Format below).

Output Format

# Citation Fixer — Changelog

## Summary
- **Document:** [filename]
- **Backup:** [backup filename]
- **Fixes applied:** X total (Y metadata, Z formatting, W gap markers)
- **Items for human review:** N

## Applied Fixes

### Metadata Corrections (Agent A)
| # | Reference | Field | Before | After | Source |
|---|-----------|-------|--------|-------|--------|

### Formatting Fixes (Agent B)
| # | Location | Type | Before | After | Rule |
|---|----------|------|--------|-------|------|

### Gap Markers Inserted (Agent C)
| # | Location | Statement | Marker | Suggested Sources |
|---|----------|-----------|--------|-------------------|

## Requires Human Review

### Potentially Fabricated References
| # | Reference | Checker Status | Closest Real Match | Action Needed |
|---|-----------|---------------|-------------------|---------------|

### Claim Grounding Issues
| # | Location | Claim | Cited Source | Issue |
|---|----------|-------|-------------|-------|

### Orphan References
| # | Reference | Options |
|---|-----------|---------|

### Citation Coverage Issues
| # | Location | Issue | Suggestion |
|---|----------|-------|------------|

File Format Handling

Reference Files

• ../../references/apa7-guide.md — APA 7 formatting rules for citations and reference lists
• references/correction-rules.md — Auto-fix transformation patterns and safety boundaries