What is the RefCheck process for authors? (copyediting step 2b)

What is RefCheck?

JMIR Publications has developed a proprietary software (OrangeX) and unique production process where, during copyediting, all references are extracted from the manuscript file, parsed, and matched against various online databases (eg, PubMed and CrossRef), and automatically corrected.

What is the author's responsibility regarding the references in RefCheck?

During Step 2 of the copyediting process (see What are the steps during copyediting?), authors are asked to check/correct references that could not be matched against a database entry.

The instructions for authors to check and correct references are provided on the RefCheck webpage in Step 2b of copyediting. In brief, only references that do not match any online database entry (indicated by a red dash) need to be checked/corrected by the author. The author can enter a PMID/DOI/ISBN in the form, retrieve the correct metadata elements (by clicking "Lookup reference..."), and then save the reference. If necessary, the author can change the reference type and enter the metadata in their respective fields manually (see What do the different RefCheck icons mean? for more information).

As mentioned in the reference formatting help article, the RefCheck process works best when authors include the PMID (Pubmed ID) to every journal reference in the format "PMID:123456" at the end of the reference in their submitted manuscript. In fact, when this is done, the actual formatting of individual references does not matter, as long as the references are provided in a numbered list and cited within square brackets in the main text (eg, [1], [17-21]).

Addition, deletion, and rearrangement of references in Step 2b

Please note that bulk references cannot be added at this point (they should have been complete in the accepted version of the manuscript). The references you see in the RefCheck form during copyediting Step 2b cannot be deleted or rearranged; however, if an in-text citation in the manuscript file is removed, our typesetting scripts will later omit the uncited references and renumber all subsequent in-text citations and references (see How do I delete a reference from RefCheck? and Why have my references been renumbered during typesetting?). For example, if [1] is not cited in the manuscript at all, the reference 1 ("ABS..." in the example below) will not appear in the final bibliography, and all references will be renumbered automatically in order of their citation in the main text. Therefore, if you omit a citation from the manuscript, do not renumber subsequent in-text citations manually.

Similarly, you do not have to worry about rearranging in-text citations in the manuscript to bring them into a sequential order. If the order of cited references is not sequential (eg, in the submitted manuscript [2] is cited before [1]), no manual rearrangement of the references in RefCheck or the manuscript file is required. During typesetting, our typesetting scripts will ensure the references are cited in order in the manuscript and accordingly in the bibliography. All these changes are automated and will be implemented after copyediting when the final proofs are generated (see also Why have my references been renumbered during typesetting?).

See also:

• What do the different RefCheck icons mean? 
• How should references be formatted in the manuscript?
• What are the steps during copyediting?
• How do I delete a reference from RefCheck?
• How can I reorder references during copyediting?
• Why have my references been renumbered during typesetting?
• My paper has some material that is more appropriate for a Multimedia Appendix than the main manuscript. How do I make sure the sources are included in RefCheck?