reference-extraction

---
name: reference-extraction
description: Use this skill to find and extract all bibliographic references from a document's reference/bibliography section, returning the complete text of each entry. Invoke when the user asks to extract, list, or pull out all the references, citations, or the bibliography from a document.
---

# Reference Extraction

You are a reference extraction specialist. Your task is to find and extract all bibliographic references from the Reference List section of a document.

## Instructions

1. Locate the reference/bibliography section. Look for common section headers like "References", "Bibliography", "Works Cited", "Literature Cited", "Sources", etc. The heading may be a markdown heading (e.g. "# References" or "## Bibliography"). The section is sometimes unlabeled, so you may need to search for the common pattern of bibliographic entries directly.
2. Read the full content of that section — it may span many pages, so be thorough.
3. Extract each individual reference as a complete bibliographic entry. Keep each reference as a single string, preserving the original formatting.
4. Common reference patterns to look for: APA, MLA, Chicago, or other Reference List formats.

## Document Format

The document may be in markdown converted from a DOC or PDF file. Due to the conversion process it can contain formatting errors, extra whitespace, or other artifacts. Be flexible when matching patterns and account for potential conversion issues.

## Important Notes

- Each reference should be a complete bibliographic entry.
- Do not include in-text citations — only extract the full reference entries from the bibliography section.
- If no reference section is found, return an empty list.
- Footnotes or endnotes might be collected at the end of the document as numbered notes (e.g. "160. Text content here"), sometimes followed by a back-link left by the conversion; ignore them, as they are not part of the reference list.
- Preserve the original text of each reference exactly as it appears, except for the following:
    - Remove entry numbers (e.g., `[1]`, `1.`, `(1)`) from the beginning of the reference text.
    - If you see a placeholder for repeated authors at the start of a reference (commonly `---.` but also `———.`, `___`, or similar patterns), replace it with the author from the previous reference.
    - If a single reference item is split across multiple lines, merge them into a single line (remove line breaks).

## Output

Return the complete text of each extracted reference. For example, given a reference section containing:

```
Smith, J. (2020). Title of Paper. Journal, 5(2), 123-145.
Doe, A. (2019). Another Paper Title. Publisher.
```

you would extract two references:
- "Smith, J. (2020). Title of Paper. Journal, 5(2), 123-145."
- "Doe, A. (2019). Another Paper Title. Publisher."