Citation Parsing and Analysis with Language Models

A key type of resource needed to address global inequalities in knowledge production and dissemination is a tool that can support journals in understanding how knowledge circulates. The absence of such a tool has resulted in comparatively less information about networks of knowledge sharing in the Global South. In turn, this gap authorizes the exclusion of researchers and scholars from the South in indexing services, reinforcing colonial arrangements that de-center and minoritize those scholars. In order to support citation network tracking on a global scale, we investigate the capacity of open-weight language models to mark up manuscript citations in an indexable format. We assembled a dataset of matched plaintext and annotated citations from preprints and published research papers. Then, we evaluated a number of open-weight language models on the annotation task. We find that, even out of the box, today's language models achieve high levels of accuracy on identifying the constituent components of each citation, outperforming state-of-the-art methods. Moreover, the smallest model we evaluated, Qwen3-0.6B, can parse all fields with high accuracy in $2^5$ passes, suggesting that post-training is likely to be effective in producing small, robust citation parsing models. Such a tool could greatly improve the fidelity of citation networks and thus meaningfully improve research indexing and discovery, as well as further metascientific research.

A global AI community requires language-diverse publishing

In this provocation, we discuss the English dominance of the AI research community, arguing that the requirement for English language publishing upholds and reinforces broader regimes of extraction in AI. While large language models and machine translation have been celebrated as a way to break down barriers, we regard their use as a symptom of linguistic exclusion of scientists and potential readers. We propose alternative futures for a healthier publishing culture, organized around three themes: administering conferences in the languages of the country in which they are held, instructing peer reviewers not to adjudicate the language appropriateness of papers, and offering opportunities to publish and present in multiple languages. We welcome new translations of this piece. Please contact the authors if you would like to contribute one.