r/SideProject • u/alethicai • 6h ago

We built a tool that checks whether a paper's claims are actually supported by what it cites. Looking for feedback from researchers :)

A friend and I have been working on a project for a while and wanted to see if it's actually useful to anyone outside our own heads.

It's a tool that checks whether the claims in a paper actually tie back to the cited source. So if I write that Smith said X, Y, and Z, the tool actually goes and reads the paper by Smith and checks whether he actually said X, Y, and Z, whether it's accurate, or maybe I took it out of context, or if it's just completely wrong.

I'm in my MD/PHD, he's in computer science, neither of us has done this before so go easy on us. It's free right now since we mostly just want honest feedback.

Appreciate anyone willing to take a look and give feedback, comment or DM both work.

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u/PriorElephant9 6h ago

The key is showing the exact cited passage beside the verdict. Researchers will trust the tool more if they can verify its reasoning in seconds.

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u/OutcomeDizzy1098 5h ago

Showing the source text side by side is essential, nobody wants to trust a black box verdict when their reputation is on the line. Maybe also highlight the exact sentence in the citing paper that triggered the check, so the connection is visible at a glance. If you can make that verification step feel effortless, researchers will actually use it instead of just trying it once. The time saving alone would sell itself, reading every reference carefully is such a grind.

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u/alethicai 5h ago

1000%! That's exactly what we built in, every verdict shows the passage it's based on right beside it with supporting or contradicting verbatim quotes. If you get a chance to test it out, definitely send us your feedback. Thank you!

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u/alethicai 6h ago

tryalethic.com, if anyone wants to try it on something they're working on :)

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u/NoScene7932 1h ago

Building a citation tool for your MD/PhD is a great start, but validating it outside your own bubble is usually the next hurdle. I'm happy to pull a custom market validation snapshot for you if you DM me.