Fort Wayne founder Nathan M. Thornhill has launched CiteStamp, a free web tool designed to identify AI-invented citations in research papers.

AI writing tools can generate references that appear legitimate and are formatted correctly, even when the cited paper does not exist. Retractions present a different challenge: researchers may never learn that a paper they previously cited has since been retracted by its publisher.

Users can paste a bibliography into CiteStamp, which checks each reference against public scholarly registries including Crossref, DataCite and OpenAlex.

The tool flags references that do not match any known work, point to a different paper than the one cited or have been retracted by the publisher. All checks are completed within the user’s browser, and no information is uploaded. Users can also save papers to a free watchlist that checks daily for new publisher retraction notices.

Thornhill built CiteStamp independently in Fort Wayne after transitioning into software from a career in healthcare. He also works as an independent researcher.

The tool was initially developed for independent researchers who may not have access to the citation-checking systems available through universities, journals and large publishing companies.

Beneath the checker is a public citation graph that records relationships between scholarly works, including whether one paper supports, refutes or extends another. Claims signed by researchers are kept separate from relationships identified through automated analysis.

Researchers can claim their work using an ORCID iD and add claims to an append-only public record. The citation graph is available in the public domain and mirrored publicly so that it can remain accessible independently of CiteStamp.

CiteStamp is a product of 3Rivers Enterprises LLC and is registered as a DBA with the Indiana Secretary of State as of July 2026.

The citation checker, daily retraction watchlist and public citation graph are available for free without usage caps or an account. A $35-per-year Pro tier adds automated features such as continuous checking while researchers write, one-click citation insertion and higher API rate limits.

CiteStamp is also available through Microsoft Word, Google Docs, Overleaf and Zotero. Its Chrome extension is available through the Chrome Web Store.

Preprint servers, independent journals and small publishers can use the CiteStamp API to screen reference lists. AI agents can also use its MCP server to verify citations before including them in generated content.

Facts and images are available at citestamp.com/press.

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