Overview

This skill provides a unified interface for academic document retrieval, DOI verification, and multi-source cross-validation using four authoritative academic APIs: OpenAlex, DBLP, CrossRef, and arXiv.

Supported Operations

Operation	Description	Primary Sources
`search`	Search papers by title, author, or keywords	OpenAlex, DBLP, arXiv
`verify-doi`	Validate DOI and retrieve metadata	CrossRef, OpenAlex
`check-venue`	Verify publication venue legitimacy	DBLP, CrossRef
`cross-validate`	Multi-source consistency check	All sources

API Endpoints

1. OpenAlex API

•Base URL: https://api.openalex.org
•Rate Limit: 100,000 requests/day (with polite pool)
•
Key Endpoints:
- •/works - Search papers
- •/works/{openalex_id} - Get work by ID
- •/works/doi:{doi} - Get work by DOI

2. DBLP API

•Base URL: https://dblp.org/search
•Rate Limit: No strict limit (be polite)
•
Key Endpoints:
- •/publ/api - Publication search
- •/author/api - Author search
- •/venue/api - Venue search

3. CrossRef API

•Base URL: https://api.crossref.org
•Rate Limit: 50 requests/second (with polite pool)
•
Key Endpoints:
- •/works/{doi} - DOI lookup
- •/works - Query works
- •/journals/{issn} - Journal metadata

4. arXiv API

•Base URL: https://export.arxiv.org/api
•Rate Limit: 1 request/3 seconds
•
Key Endpoints:
- •/query - Search papers (Atom feed)

Workflow Procedures

Paper Search Workflow

code

INPUT: query (title/author/keywords)
    │
    ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Step 1: Parallel Search                        │
│  ├─ OpenAlex: GET /works?search={query}         │
│  ├─ DBLP: GET /search/publ/api?q={query}        │
│  └─ arXiv: GET /query?search_query={query}      │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
    │
    ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Step 2: Result Normalization                   │
│  ├─ Extract: title, authors, year, DOI, venue   │
│  └─ Deduplicate by DOI / title similarity       │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
    │
    ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Step 3: Cross-Validation                       │
│  ├─ If DOI exists → verify via CrossRef         │
│  └─ Match confidence score calculation          │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
    │
    ▼
OUTPUT: Validated paper list with confidence scores

DOI Verification Workflow

code

INPUT: doi (e.g., "10.1145/3292500.3330919")
    │
    ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Step 1: Primary Verification (CrossRef)        │
│  GET https://api.crossref.org/works/{doi}       │
│  ├─ Status 200 → DOI valid                      │
│  └─ Status 404 → DOI not found                  │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
    │
    ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Step 2: Secondary Verification (OpenAlex)      │
│  GET https://api.openalex.org/works/doi:{doi}   │
│  └─ Cross-check metadata consistency            │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
    │
    ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Step 3: Metadata Extraction                    │
│  ├─ Title, Authors, Publication Date            │
│  ├─ Journal/Conference, Volume, Pages           │
│  ├─ Citation count, Open Access status          │
│  └─ Abstract (if available)                     │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
    │
    ▼
OUTPUT: Verified metadata + validation status

Venue Validation Workflow

code

INPUT: venue_name (e.g., "Nature", "SIGMOD", "ICML")
    │
    ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Step 1: DBLP Venue Lookup                      │
│  GET /search/venue/api?q={venue_name}           │
│  └─ Check if venue exists in DBLP database      │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
    │
    ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Step 2: CrossRef Journal Verification          │
│  GET /journals?query={venue_name}               │
│  └─ Retrieve ISSN and publisher info            │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
    │
    ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Step 3: Legitimacy Assessment                  │
│  ├─ Check presence in known predatory lists     │
│  ├─ Verify publisher reputation                 │
│  └─ Calculate legitimacy score (0-100)          │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
    │
    ▼
OUTPUT: Venue status + legitimacy score + warnings

Multi-Source Cross-Validation Logic

Confidence Score Calculation

python

def calculate_confidence(results: dict) -> float:
    """
    Calculate confidence score based on multi-source agreement.
    
    Sources: openalex, dblp, crossref, arxiv
    Fields: title, authors, year, venue, doi
    """
    weights = {
        'title_match': 0.25,
        'author_match': 0.20,
        'year_match': 0.15,
        'venue_match': 0.20,
        'doi_verified': 0.20
    }
    
    score = 0.0
    source_count = len([s for s in results.values() if s])
    
    # Title consistency (fuzzy match across sources)
    if title_consistency(results) > 0.9:
        score += weights['title_match']
    
    # Author overlap ratio
    author_overlap = calculate_author_overlap(results)
    score += weights['author_match'] * author_overlap
    
    # Year agreement
    if year_agreement(results):
        score += weights['year_match']
    
    # Venue verification
    if venue_verified(results):
        score += weights['venue_match']
    
    # DOI verification via CrossRef
    if doi_verified_crossref(results.get('doi')):
        score += weights['doi_verified']
    
    # Bonus for multi-source confirmation
    if source_count >= 3:
        score *= 1.1
    
    return min(score, 1.0)

Validation Status Codes

Code	Status	Description
`V1`	Fully Verified	DOI valid + 3+ sources agree
`V2`	Partially Verified	DOI valid + 2 sources agree
`V3`	Single Source	Only 1 source found
`U1`	Unverified	No DOI, metadata inconsistent
`E1`	Error	API failure or timeout

Example Requests

Search Papers

bash

# OpenAlex search
curl "https://api.openalex.org/works?search=transformer+attention&per_page=10"

# DBLP search
curl "https://dblp.org/search/publ/api?q=transformer+attention&format=json&h=10"

# arXiv search
curl "https://export.arxiv.org/api/query?search_query=all:transformer+AND+all:attention&max_results=10"

Verify DOI

bash

# CrossRef DOI lookup
curl "https://api.crossref.org/works/10.1145/3292500.3330919"

# OpenAlex DOI lookup
curl "https://api.openalex.org/works/doi:10.1145/3292500.3330919"

Check Venue

bash

# DBLP venue search
curl "https://dblp.org/search/venue/api?q=SIGMOD&format=json"

# CrossRef journal lookup
curl "https://api.crossref.org/journals?query=nature"

Error Handling

Error Type	Handling Strategy
Rate Limit (429)	Exponential backoff, switch to secondary source
Timeout	Retry with increased timeout, fall back to cache
Not Found (404)	Mark as unverified, try alternative sources
Malformed Response	Log error, use partial data if available

Output Schema

json

{
  "query": "string",
  "results": [
    {
      "title": "string",
      "authors": ["string"],
      "year": "integer",
      "doi": "string | null",
      "venue": "string",
      "abstract": "string | null",
      "url": "string",
      "sources": {
        "openalex": "boolean",
        "dblp": "boolean",
        "crossref": "boolean",
        "arxiv": "boolean"
      },
      "validation": {
        "status": "V1 | V2 | V3 | U1 | E1",
        "confidence": "float (0-1)",
        "doi_verified": "boolean",
        "venue_verified": "boolean"
      }
    }
  ],
  "metadata": {
    "total_results": "integer",
    "sources_queried": ["string"],
    "timestamp": "ISO8601"
  }
}

Best Practices

•Always verify DOIs via CrossRef before accepting paper metadata
•Use parallel requests to minimize latency across sources
•Prefer OpenAlex for comprehensive coverage and citation data
•Use DBLP for computer science venues and author disambiguation
•Check arXiv for preprints and latest submissions
•Implement caching for repeated queries (TTL: 24 hours)
•Log all validation failures for quality monitoring