Paste a bibliography with institutions and countries and see the counts. Institution and country only — no gender inference. Free, no sign-up.
What this tool does
Reference lists can quietly concentrate on a handful of institutions and countries. Counting that concentration is useful — it shows a writer where their sources actually come from. This auditor counts institutions and countries from the bibliography lines you paste. It deliberately does not guess anyone’s gender from their name: name-based gender inference is unreliable and often wrong, and a diversity audit built on guesses would mislead. Institution and country counts are verifiable facts; the tool sticks to those.
Why it matters
Good citations do quiet work. They let a reader find every source you used, they show that your argument rests on real evidence rather than memory, and they protect you: a clean reference list is much harder to challenge than a vague one. Most marks lost on referencing are not lost on difficult sources. They are lost on small, repeated slips — a missing year, a swapped initial, a title in the wrong case — that a quick tool pass catches before submission.
How to use it
- Paste bibliography lines, one per line, each ending with Institution, Country.
- Click Audit.
- Read the institution and country tables.
Worked example
Three lines ending ‘Oxford, UK’, ‘MIT, USA’, ‘Oxford, UK’ give: Institutions — Oxford 2, MIT 1. Countries — UK 2, USA 1. One glance shows two-thirds of the list comes from one institution, which is exactly the kind of pattern worth noticing before submission.
Tips for good results
A skewed count is information, not an accusation. Use it to ask whether you searched widely enough, not to hit a quota.
Work from the source itself, not from another paper’s copy of it. And keep one style for the whole list: a single mixed entry undermines an otherwise perfect bibliography.
Honest limits
Counts are only as good as the institution and country you type at the end of each line; the tool does not look up affiliations. It counts what you paste, nothing more, and it never infers gender, ethnicity or any personal characteristic from names.
Common mistakes to avoid
Common mistakes to avoid: copying a reference from another paper without checking it against the original, trusting a PDF filename for the title or year, and mixing two styles in one list. Each of these looks harmless alone and careless together. Run the tool, read its output once, and compare it with the source itself before you paste it into your document.
Before you submit
Run through this short check before you submit: is every author name spelled as it appears on the source, is every year present and correct, and does every in-text citation have a matching entry in your reference list? Read the list once from top to bottom rather than skimming it. Most referencing errors are found in that single slow read, and fixing them there is far cheaper than fixing them after a reviewer finds them. If one entry still looks odd after that read, check it against the original source before you change anything else.
Frequently asked questions
Is this tool really free?
Yes. It runs in your browser on this page, with no account and no payment. Nothing you paste leaves your computer.
Do I still need to check the result?
Yes, once. Tools apply rules; they cannot verify facts about your source. Compare the output with the source itself before submitting.
Can I use the output in my paper?
Yes. The output is a formatted reference or analysis for your own work. Keep the source’s facts accurate and the formatting consistent across your list.
What if the tool’s output differs from my style guide?
Trust the style guide. Tools encode the common rules of a style; your university or journal’s own sheet wins every disagreement. Use the tool to do the routine work, then apply the local rule where it differs.
Also available in Spanish: Auditor de Diversidad de Citas – Recuentos por Institución y País para Listas de Referencias Gratis.