Get “Find → Verify → Cite” Right in One Pass: How Citely Streamlines a Quantitative Paper in Communication Studies

Citely concentrates the three places where academic writing most often breaks: finding the original source, verifying authenticity, and producing clean citations. The workflow is straightforward: Source Finder (discovery + source tracing) → Chat (interactive AI helper) → Citation Checker (batch authenticity & field validation). Below is a scenario-driven, copy-ready process.

Step 1 | Rewrite your question into searchable sentences Don’t start with blind searching. First, turn your topic into clear, measurable, variable-based sentences, then search. Use Chat to:

1. Rewrite a vague topic into descriptive / comparative / relational question forms.
2. Decompose each question into independent variables, dependent variables, candidate measures, and searchable keywords. Copy-paste prompt (for Chat) “I’m studying the relationship between platform governance and distribution fairness. Please provide two versions each of descriptive, comparative, and relational research questions. For each version, list the independent/dependent variables, candidate measures, and 6–10 keywords I can search.”

Step 2 | One search that both finds and gets it right Feed those keywords/sentences into Source Finder:

• Discovery: Generate a focused shortlist of candidate studies relevant to your topic.
• Source tracing: Prefer original sources (not secondary summaries).
• Metadata alignment: During search, preliminarily align title, authors, DOI, etc., to reduce downstream errors. Copy-paste prompt (for Source Finder) “platform governance AND (recommendation fairness OR exposure inequality) AND (measurement OR index). Prioritize original empirical or methods papers and include verifiable DOIs.”

Step 3 | Triage and structure your writing flow (use Chat as a structured assistant) Once you have candidates, use Chat as your interactive AI helper to:

• Label each item (methods paper / empirical reuse / comparative study / industry report).
• Summarize each in 2–3 lines (object, method, key finding).
• Plan actions (download, close read, replace, discard) with reasons. Copy-paste prompt (for Chat) “Using these candidate papers, produce a table with three columns: {Category label}, {one-sentence takeaway}, {recommended action: close read / keep as backup / discard + rationale}. Then output a 10-item writing action list with priorities and estimated time.” Note: Chat here is an interactive AI tool—great for clarifying needs, rewriting search queries, organizing bullet points, and producing action lists or lightweight summaries. It does not make scholarly judgments or write your argument for you.

Step 4 | While writing: source-trace and de-noise on the fly As you draft the introduction or related work, it’s easy to lean on secondary summaries. Run crucial claims through Source Finder again to ensure you:

• Land on the original paper or an authoritative version (journal/conference/database).
• Align metadata (title, authors, volume/issue, pages, DOI) before adding to your references. Copy-paste prompt “Locate the original paper for this claim and return normalized metadata (including DOI). If multiple versions exist, rank them and explain the ordering.”

Step 5 | Pre-submission sweep: let Citation Checker clear the mines Before you hit submit, pass your entire References section to Citation Checker. It will:

• Verify authenticity: flag “no-such-paper”/AI-fabricated entries.
• Match fields: align title, authors, venue, volume/issue, pages, and DOI.
• Suggest fixes: propose correct records or provide verification links.
• Export a report: generate a CSV errata list for quick corrections in your editor. Copy-paste prompt (for Citation Checker) “Please run batch authenticity and field matching on the 35 references below. Flag anomalies, provide fix suggestions/verification links, and export a CSV errata (with issue type and corrected fields).”

Real-world, copy-ready snippets

• Within 10 minutes of scoping: Give Chat your topic and get “3 question types × 2 versions + variables/measures + keywords.”
• Same day you shape the outline: Run 2–3 quick Source Finder rounds (15–20 minutes each) to progressively replace secondaries with originals.
• 30 minutes before submission: Drop your references into Citation Checker, export the errata CSV, and patch your manuscript.

Quick FAQ Q: What exactly can Chat help with? A: Chat is an interactive AI helper for rewriting search queries, clarifying needs, producing bullet-point takeaways and action lists, and generating lightweight summaries. It doesn’t make scholarly judgments or write arguments. Q: How do I avoid citing secondary summaries? A: When a claim or method is pivotal, run it through Source Finder to locate the original paper or authoritative version and align the metadata before adding it to your references. Q: Can Citely catch “AI-fabricated” citations? A: Yes. Citation Checker performs batch authenticity checks and field matching. Suspicious entries get flagged with suggested fixes and verifiable links.

Bottom line

• Ask the right way first (Chat turns fuzzy ideas into searchable, actionable questions).
• Then find the right sources (Source Finder prioritizes originals and aligns metadata).
• Finish with one clean pass (Citation Checker validates authenticity and fields at scale). Bake this chain into your writing routine and “credible sources + clean citations” becomes your default.