Once the main draft was complete, I went back through the report specifically to check the references.

I wanted to make sure that page numbers were only added where the original source actually supported them and that I was not creating false precision.

Checking Against the Original Sources

For each important in-text citation, I returned to the original paper and checked the page or page range supporting the claim.

This was particularly important for direct quotations and for detailed claims about findings.

Some journal articles use conventional page numbers, while others use article numbers or are published online without normal pagination.

I therefore could not apply one rule mechanically to every source.

Avoiding Invented Page Numbers

One of the most important parts of this process was accepting that a citation is better left without a pinpoint page than given an unverified one.

For sources such as Wei et al., Zarins et al. and some other recent article-number publications, conventional page references were not appropriate in the same way as a paginated journal article.

Accuracy is more important than making every citation look identical.

Checking Direct Quotations

Participant quotations do not need academic page references because they come from my own primary dataset.

Published quotations, however, needed to be checked carefully against the original source.

This also gave me another opportunity to make sure I had not accidentally altered wording while drafting.

Reference List Consistency

I also checked that pinpoint pages used in the body were not being incorrectly copied into the bibliography.

The reference list should contain the full publication details. In-text page numbers identify the specific location supporting a claim.

These are different functions.

Missing and Duplicate Sources

The audit also helped identify sources that appeared in the body but needed to be checked against the final reference list, particularly organisational and project sources such as current accessibility schemes.

I also needed to avoid treating different communications from the same project as if they were independent studies.

Why This Matters

This stage felt less creative than writing the argument, but it is important because the report depends on the reader being able to trust the evidence.

A strong argument is weakened very quickly if the citation does not actually support the sentence beside it.

The audit has made me much more confident that the references can be traced back to the original material.