All rules

Citations and reference list do not match

citation-reference-mismatchon by defaultJapanese / English

A citation with no entry in the reference list, or an entry the text never cites

Example

Flagged
# Sleep and memory Sleep helps memories settle [1]. A short nap helps too [3]. ## References - [1] Smith, A. Sleep. 2019. - [2] Jones, B. Naps. 2021.
What chaff prints
3:56 The citation "[3]" names 3, which is not in the reference list 8:1 This entry of the reference list is never cited in the text
Fixed
# Sleep and memory Sleep helps memories settle [1]. A short nap helps too [2]. ## References - [1] Smith, A. Sleep. 2019. - [2] Jones, B. Naps. 2021.
What chaff prints
no finding
chaff.yaml used for this example
genre: academic/paper

How to fix

Check whether the numbers shifted, and correct the citation or the list. Remove an entry that is never cited, or cite it where it belongs.

Why it matters

When the text cites [5] and the reference list has no entry 5, the reader cannot check the source. An entry the text never cites was either left behind or lost its citation. It happens when references are added or removed and renumbered. A paper that cites by number is compared number by number; one that cites by author and year, by surname and year. When fewer than half of the entries are cited in a form chaff reads (superscript numbers lost in a copy, say), uncited entries are not reported.

What it does not flag

A document without a list under a heading such as "References", entries that give neither a number nor an author and a year, and a list of one entry are left alone. Numbered citations are compared only with numbered entries, and author-year citations only with author-year entries. A citation by a name of several words (Santoni de Sio (2020), Council of the European Union (2024)) is matched to an entry by any of its words, and is not reported as missing. Brackets holding 0 ([0,1]) are an interval, not a citation. Only the academic paper genre runs this rule.

Turning it off or relaxing it

Silence this one spot (in the document)
<!-- stet: citation-reference-mismatch — reason -->
Relax it for the team (the reason is kept as a comment in chaff.yaml)
npx chaffjs relax citation-reference-mismatch --why "reason"
Turn it off for the team (chaff.yaml)
rules: citation-reference-mismatch: off
Technical details
Layer
L3
Status
stable
Severity
warning
Languages
Japanese and English
Suited to
academic, legal, docs, literature, speech

Levels

Set a level for this rule under rules in chaff.yaml. With nothing set, it runs at the level its genre gives it (see By genre below).

stricterror
normalwarning
relaxedinfo

This rule has no limit to count to. A level sets how a finding is marked: relaxed keeps the finding and marks it a step lower.

By genre

Runs by default in
academic/paper
Turned off by the genre in
legal/contract, legal/statute, legal/judgment, legal/patent, docs/manual, docs/faq, docs/glossary, literature/fiction, literature/essay, literature/poetry, literature/play, speech/address, speech/transcript
Not suited to, and not run in
technical/spec, technical/readme, blog/tech, blog/essay, blog/owned-media, business/proposal, business/report, business/email, business/press-release, business/meeting-notes

Genres

Message

A citation and the reference list do not match

The citation "{citation}" names {key}, which is not in the reference list

This entry of the reference list is never cited in the text

Rewrite depth (chaff fix-plan --depth): light — words and sentences; the structure and the voice stay

This page is built from the rule's definition file:packages/chaff/rules/citation-reference-mismatch.yaml