Scholar Sidekick for ChatGPT: Plugin, Example Prompts & Reviews

Example prompts

3 from the official listing

Scholar Sidekick Verify: doi:10.1126/science.1225829, Jinek et al., Science 2012
Scholar Sidekick Is this real? doi:10.1126/science.1225829 "CRISPR-Cas9 Genome Editing"
Scholar Sidekick Has doi:10.1126/science.1225829 been retracted?

Mention Scholar Sidekick by name in your message, as the official examples do.

How to use Scholar Sidekick in ChatGPT

Open Scholar Sidekick in ChatGPT’s plugin directory

Open Scholar Sidekick’s page on chatgpt.com. Sign in to ChatGPT if you are not already.
Install it from that page

Choose Install plugin there. It adds the Scholar Sidekick app to ChatGPT.
Mention Scholar Sidekick in a chat

Start a new chat and name it in your request, for example: “Scholar Sidekick, verify: doi:10.1126/science.1225829, Jinek et al., Science 2012”

Availability can depend on your ChatGPT plan, your region and, on work accounts, your admin’s settings.

What Scholar Sidekick does

Audit a whole reference list in one request - up to 25 entries, each checked for fabrication and retraction, returned as a per-entry verdict table. Verify whether a single citation is real - it cross-checks the claimed title and authors against the actual record at the identifier, catching the common pattern where a real DOI is paired with a fabricated or mismatched title. Resolve a DOI, PMID, PMCID, ISBN, arXiv ID, ISSN, or ADS bibcode into a clean, formatted citation in Vancouver, APA, AMA, IEEE, CSE, or any of 10,000+ CSL styles. Check whether a paper has been retracted, corrected, or had an expression of concern raised. Works in Codex too: ask the coding agent to verify the references in a manuscript or .bib file while it works. Results show in a citation card with the verdict, the formatted reference, and the source identifier. $0 - no account and no API key required.

From the official listing, written by Mark Lavercombe.

What Scholar Sidekick can access

The official listing names no Read or Write capability for Scholar Sidekick. Check what it asks for when you add it, and connect only the accounts you want it to use.

Before you connect it

OpenAI’s plugin pages note that a connected plugin may receive relevant parts of your chats to answer a request, and that Mark Lavercombe’s own terms and privacy policy then cover that data. You can disconnect a plugin later in ChatGPT’s settings. Read the privacy policy (scholar-sidekick.com) and terms (scholar-sidekick.com).

Scholar Sidekick reviews

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Scholar Sidekick in ChatGPT: questions and answers

What does Scholar Sidekick do in ChatGPT?

Audit a whole reference list in one request - up to 25 entries, each checked for fabrication and retraction, returned as a per-entry verdict table.

What can I ask Scholar Sidekick in ChatGPT?

The official listing suggests prompts like: “Verify: doi:10.1126/science.1225829, Jinek et al., Science 2012”; “Is this real? doi:10.1126/science.1225829 "CRISPR-Cas9 Genome Editing"”; “Has doi:10.1126/science.1225829 been retracted?”.

How do I use Scholar Sidekick in ChatGPT?

Open Scholar Sidekick’s page in ChatGPT’s plugin directory on chatgpt.com and install it there. Then mention Scholar Sidekick in a chat, for example: “Verify: doi:10.1126/science.1225829, Jinek et al., Science 2012”.

Who makes the Scholar Sidekick plugin?

Mark Lavercombe, currently at version 2.0.1. Best GPT Apps is an independent directory and is not affiliated with OpenAI or Mark Lavercombe.

Is Scholar Sidekick one of the old ChatGPT plugins from 2023?

No. The 2023 ChatGPT plugins were a separate beta that OpenAI has since retired. Today’s ChatGPT plugins are the apps directory under a new name: since July 2026 a plugin can bundle apps, skills and MCP servers.