The Scholar Sidekick app lets ChatGPT check whether a citation is real, format any identifier in 10,000+ styles, and flag retractions - each answer rendered as an interactive citation card.
Free, no sign-in or API key. A thin client over the Scholar Sidekick API, built on the OpenAI Apps SDK. Covers Codex too - the coding agent shares the same app directory.
ChatGPT is increasingly where people draft, summarise, and check references - but a language model on its own cannot tell you whether the DOI it just produced points at the paper it claims to. The Scholar Sidekick app closes that gap: it gives ChatGPT a direct line to the real scholarly record, so a claimed citation can be checked against what its identifier actually resolves to, inside the same conversation.
This is a verifier and formatter, not a paper search.The app works from identifiers and claimed citations you already have - it does not discover new literature. Pair it with a literature-search tool for that; use this when the question is “is this citation real?”, “format this in APA”, or “has this been retracted?”
Every answer renders as an interactive citation card - the verdict, the formatted reference, or the retraction status - rather than a wall of text.
Codex - OpenAI’s coding agent - merged into the ChatGPT desktop app on 9 July 2026, and the two share one app directory. Enabling the app above therefore covers Codex inside ChatGPT too: ask it to verify the references in a manuscript, a .bib file, or a docs page while it works. Useful because coding agents cite as confidently as chat models do - and with the same fabrication rate.
Using the Codex CLI instead? Add the MCP server with one command - no API key needed:
codex mcp add scholar-sidekick -- npx -y scholar-sidekick-mcp@latest
The CLI path exposes the full seven-tool MCP surface. See the MCP server page for the ~/.codex/config.toml block and optional API-key setup.
DOI, PMID, PMCID, ISBN, ISSN, arXiv id, ADS bibcode, and WHO IRIS URL. A citation with no resolvable identifier is reported as unverifiable rather than guessed at - the app reports its coverage honestly rather than implying a clean bill when an entry could not be checked.
https://scholar-sidekick.com over HTTPS.It is an OpenAI Apps SDK app that lets ChatGPT call Scholar Sidekick directly while you chat. Mention a DOI, PMID, ISBN, arXiv id, or paste a citation, and ChatGPT can verify it, format it, or check its retraction status - showing the answer as an interactive citation card rather than plain text.
Open the Scholar Sidekick app listing in the ChatGPT app directory and enable it, then call it from any conversation - either by asking in natural language ("verify this citation", "format this DOI in APA") or by selecting it from the apps menu. No configuration file and no API key are required.
Yes, it is free, and no API key or Scholar Sidekick account is required. The app uses the anonymous tier of the Scholar Sidekick service over a no-auth connection. A ChatGPT account is needed only because the app runs inside ChatGPT.
Four things: audit a whole reference list in one request (up to 25 entries), verify whether a single claimed citation is real (catching the real-DOI + fabricated-title pattern), format one to five identifiers into a reference in any of 10,000+ citation styles, and check whether a work has been retracted or corrected. It does not search for new papers - it works from identifiers and claimed citations you already have.
Yes. Codex merged into the ChatGPT desktop app on 9 July 2026 and shares its app directory, so enabling the Scholar Sidekick app covers Codex inside ChatGPT. For the Codex CLI, add the MCP server instead: codex mcp add scholar-sidekick -- npx -y scholar-sidekick-mcp@latest. The CLI path exposes the full seven-tool surface and also needs no API key.
It is the same citation engine, surfaced for a different host. The MCP server gives Claude, Cursor, and other MCP clients the full seven-tool surface; the ChatGPT App exposes the four highest-value read-only tools (audit, verify, format, retraction) with an interactive citation-card widget built for ChatGPT. Both are backed by the public Scholar Sidekick API.
The app sends only the identifiers and citation text you ask it to check, to scholar-sidekick.com over HTTPS. Inputs are not retained or used for training; see the privacy policy for full disclosure.