Blog
Writing on literature reviews, citation tools, and finding sources that actually hold up.
How to Check Whether a Paper You're Citing Has Been Retracted
Retracted papers keep getting cited long after they're withdrawn. Here's where to check, what the different notices mean, and how to handle one you've already used.
How to Check Whether a Citation Actually Exists
AI chatbots can produce references that look perfect and point to nothing. Here's a five-minute routine for catching them before a reviewer does.
A High Citation Count Doesn't Automatically Mean a Trustworthy Source
Citation count is a useful signal, not a verdict. Here's what it actually measures, and what it quietly leaves out.
Preprints vs. Peer-Reviewed Papers: Does It Matter Which One You Cite?
arXiv, bioRxiv, and SSRN show up in almost every modern literature search. Here's how to decide when a preprint is fine to cite and when it isn't.
Your Literature Review Is Probably Missing Papers You'd Actually Want
The most common gaps in a manual literature search aren't the papers you didn't look for. They're the ones that use different words than you did.
Zotero vs. Mendeley vs. EndNote: Which One Should You Actually Use?
A practical comparison for people who just want to stop losing track of their sources, not a religious debate about reference managers.
What Actually Counts as a "Citation-Worthy" Claim?
Not every sentence in a research paper needs a source behind it. Here's a practical way to tell which ones do.