What is Edifix?

Authors, reviewers, editors, and readers rely on complete and correct bibliographic reference lists to trace the paths of research through the scholarly record. However, editing, linking, and verifying the quality of reference lists is often very tedious and very time consuming when done by hand. This is where Edifix comes in!

Edifix—a cloud-based, scalable solution—makes powerful bibliographic reference tools available to everyone, from individual authors and freelance editors to large publishers and service providers. Using patented rules-based parsing technology, Edifix automatically identifies elements in plain-text bibliographic references of any style, copyedits references to a variety of editorial styles, corrects references with data retrieved from PubMed and Crossref, and inserts PubMed IDs and Crossref DOIs. The results can be copied into documents, exported to JATS XML, or converted to RIS for seamless integration with popular reference managers.

So, is Edifix a reference manager?

No. Definitely not.

There are plenty of reference management tools out there, some free and others for a cost, and Edifix is not designed to compete with them. Instead, Edifix is a valuable complement to reference management products.

Reference management tools are databases, and, like most databases, they require a structured input, whether that input is downloaded from a publisher’s website or an aggregator such as PubMed, or is entered from the keyboard by the user. They are not designed to take an unstructured input and identify the different elements of a reference.

This is where Edifix can step in. If you have an unstructured reference list -- say, from a PDF of a journal article that isn’t available as HTML, or from a Word file sent to you by a colleague or a student -- you can copy and paste that reference list into Edifix and let Edifix’s unique reference-parsing technology reformat the references, identify the various elements, and insert PubMed and Crossref links.

You can then download the output in RIS format, which can be imported directly into your reference management software of choice, such as EndNote, Mendeley, or Zotero.

Does Edifix use AI?

No—and that's deliberate.

Reference correction rewards precision and accountability over cleverness. Edifix uses a mature, rules-based engine to recognise the structure of a citation and break it into its parts, then sends those parts to authoritative external sources—Crossref, PubMed, and Retraction Watch—for verification, enrichment, and linking.

This gives you three things generative AI cannot reliably guarantee:

• Reproducibility. Edifix is deterministic—the same input always produces the same output. AI tools can behave differently each time because of a built-in setting called temperature, which means the same question doesn't always get the same answer. Their accuracy can also degrade as the world moves beyond their training data—a problem known as model drift. Edifix doesn't have that problem—your corrections today match your corrections next year.
• No hallucination. Edifix never invents a citation, an author, or a DOI. If a structural element isn't present, it isn't fabricated. Everything you get back is grounded in your reference and in records from trusted databases.
• Transparency and privacy. Because Edifix follows explicit, documented rules, every result is explainable and traceable, whereas AI models are often called "black boxes" for producing results they can't fully explain.

In scholarly and editorial work, a single fabricated DOI or misattributed author can undermine trust in an entire publication. That reliability is exactly the point.

How do I get started?

Once you've signed up for a free trial or a subscription, click New Edifix Job at the top of the Edifix.com page to submit a new list of references for Edifix to process.

Select the reference style that best matches your editorial style. We offer over a dozen standard and publisher-specific styles, including AMA, APA, Chicago, and Cell Press. View our complete list of editorial style options.

Based on data obtained from PubMed and Crossref, Edifix can correct references and insert hyperlinked PMIDs and DOIs. If you want your references corrected and linked to PubMed or Crossref, select PubMed and/or Crossref Linking and Data Correction. Learn more about PubMed and Crossref Linking and Data Correction.

When you have finished selecting your Edifix options, paste your references into the Input References box. You can paste a single reference or an entire reference list. For best results, there should be no line breaks within an individual reference, and the references should be either numbered or in alphabetical order, as they would typically appear in print. You may also want to highlight your references and select the Clear Formatting button to clean out any unusual formatting that may interfere with Edifix processing.

When you are ready to Edifix your references, click Edifix Your References. Please be patient: the Edifix process takes approximately three seconds per reference.

When Edifix is finished, your results will be displayed in three different views:

• References Only displays only your Edifixed references, with no links or changes shown.

• References + Links/Comments displays your Edifixed references, any inserted DOIs and PMIDs, and any comments from the Crossref and PubMed checking of your references highlighted in yellow.

• Show Changes displays your references with any changes made. Red strikethrough text indicates deletions, green markup indicates additions, and the reference is also shown in its final form.

In all views, references that have not been Edifixed are gray and should be reviewed and/or copyedited by hand.

The restructured, corrected, and/or linked references can then be copied and pasted back into a word processor (like MS Word). You can also download your references as an HTML-formatted Word document, an HTML webpage, or any of the following structured formats:

• JATS (NLM) XML

• RIS

• Medline XML

These structured formats can then be used as inputs to reference management tools or other downstream processes. Learn more about Edifix Export options.

Questions?

The Edifix Team is happy to help! Send us a message.