[FEATURE] Reference Authenticity & Retraction Check (Lite)

[HzaCode]

Problem

AI-generated or user-supplied citations can be fake, non-resolving, or retracted.
OneCite currently cleans and normalizes references but does not verify authenticity.
Users need a quick way to ensure their references are real and safe to cite.

Goal

Provide a lightweight verification step that confirms each reference:

• Exists (DOI or URL resolves),
• Comes from a legitimate venue/domain,
• Is not retracted, withdrawn, or flagged,
  and returns a simple pass/fail with minimal evidence.

Out of Scope (v1)

• PDF provenance or content forensics
• Citation quality or impact scoring
• Complex confidence weighting

Proposed Approach (v1)

• Data sources: Crossref (required), PubMed (optional for biomedical), OpenAlex (supplement), Unpaywall (OA domain sanity).

• Checks:

  1. DOI/URL resolution
  2. Crossref relations or updates (retraction, withdrawal, correction, expression of concern)
  3. Optional PubMed pubtype verification
  4. Optional OpenAlex is_retracted flag

• Decision: status = valid | needs_review | blocked

• Output: simple JSON report + optional filtered .bib for valid entries.

UX (CLI & API)

CLI

onecite verify refs.txt \
  --report verify.json \
  --emit-bib good.bib \
  --fail-on blocked

Python

from onecite.verify import verify_references
report = verify_references(items, fail_on="blocked")

Minimal Rules (v1)

• R1 DOI resolves (2xx/3xx) to a known publisher → else blocked
• R2 Crossref shows retraction/withdrawal/EoC → blocked; correction/erratum → needs_review
• R3 (optional) PubMed pubtype includes retraction → blocked

Acceptance Criteria

• Retracted DOI → status=blocked, CLI exits non-zero when --fail-on blocked.
• Valid DOI → status=valid, includes publisher URL in report.
• Unmatched title → status=needs_review, excluded from good.bib.

Open Questions

• Default behavior for needs_review (warn or fail)?
• Maintain built-in trusted domain list or fetch dynamically?
• Default data sources enabled?

Next Steps

• Implement onecite verify skeleton using Crossref.
• Define minimal JSON schema for verification results.
• Add optional PubMed and OpenAlex adapters later.