FLoRA — Replication Tracker

FLoRA (Framework for Open and Reproducible Research Assessment) is a browser extension for Chrome and Edge that automatically detects academic papers on the web and checks whether they have replication or reproduction data in the FORRT Replication Database.

When you visit an article page (PubMed, journal websites, preprint servers, etc.) or search on Google Scholar, FLoRA scans for DOIs, looks them up against the FORRT database, and shows you at a glance whether that research has been replicated or reproduced.

What it does

• Article pages: Displays a banner at the top of the page summarizing replication/reproduction data for all DOIs found on the page. Inline badges also appear next to individual DOI links. Handles SPAs by detecting URL changes and re-scanning automatically.
• Google Scholar: Adds DOI pills and replication badges to the right-hand side of each search result (alongside the PDF link area). When a result lacks a native .gs_ggs container, one is created to match Scholar's own layout.
• DOI extraction: Extracts DOIs from meta tags, JSON-LD, link hrefs, visible text, and HTML tables. Handles word-break characters (zero-width spaces, soft hyphens) and validates DOI suffixes to avoid partial matches from split HTML.
• DOI augmentation: When a page or Scholar result doesn't have a DOI in its HTML, FLoRA queries Crossref and OpenAlex to resolve the article title to a DOI via fuzzy matching (token-set-ratio > 88%).
• DOI popover: Each DOI pill has a hover popover showing the full DOI string with a copy-to-clipboard button.
• Clicking badges/links: Opens the FORRT replication landing page for the relevant DOI(s).

Installation (developer mode)

Since this extension is not yet on the Chrome Web Store, you'll need to load it manually.

Quick install

1. Download flora-extension.zip (built automatically from the latest code)
2. Unzip it to a folder on your computer
3. Open chrome://extensions (or edge://extensions)
4. Enable Developer mode (toggle in the top-right corner)
5. Click Load unpacked and select the unzipped folder
6. You're done! Navigate to any academic article page or Google Scholar to see FLoRA in action.

Building from source

If you want to develop or modify the extension:

1. Install Node.js (v18 or later)

2. Clone and build:

   git clone https://github.com/forrtproject/flora-chromium.git
   cd flora-chromium
   npm install
   npm run build

3. Load the project root folder as an unpacked extension (as above).

After making changes, run npm run build and click the reload icon on the FLoRA extension card in chrome://extensions.

Development

Project structure

flora-chromium/
  manifest.json          # Chrome MV3 manifest
  esbuild.config.ts      # Build configuration
  src/
    shared/              # Shared modules used by all entry points
      types.ts           # Zod schemas, branded types, state types
      doi-normalise.ts   # DOI string normalisation
      doi-extractor.ts   # Extract DOIs from page HTML (meta, JSON-LD, visible text, tables)
      doi-augment.ts     # Resolve titles to DOIs via Crossref + OpenAlex
      flora-api.ts       # FORRT replication API client
      messages.ts        # Message types for content ↔ background
      cache.ts           # Session cache (chrome.storage.session)
      debounce.ts        # Debounce utility
    background/
      service-worker.ts  # MV3 service worker — handles FLORA_LOOKUP messages
    content-general/
      index.ts           # Content script for article pages (SPA-aware)
      injector.ts        # Banner, inline badge, and DOI popover rendering (Shadow DOM)
      styles.css         # Banner/badge styles
    content-scholar/
      index.ts           # Content script for Google Scholar
      observer.ts        # MutationObserver + DOI extraction/augmentation for Scholar results
      badge.ts           # Scholar replication badge rendering (Shadow DOM)
      styles.css         # Scholar badge styles
    options/
      index.html         # Options page
  tests/
    setup.ts             # Chrome API mocks
    helpers.ts           # Test utilities (doi(), mockResult())
    unit/                # Unit tests for all modules
    fixtures/            # HTML fixtures for extractor tests
  dist/                  # Built output (generated by npm run build)

Commands

Command	Description
npm run build	Build the extension (one-time)
npm run watch	Build and watch for changes
npm test	Run all unit tests
npm run test:watch	Run tests in watch mode
npm run typecheck	TypeScript type checking

Tech stack

• TypeScript (strict mode)
• esbuild for bundling (fast, <50KB bundles)
• Zod for API response validation
• Vitest + jsdom + msw for testing
• Shadow DOM for UI isolation (styles don't leak into host pages)
• Manifest V3 (Chrome + Edge)

How it works

1. Content scripts run on every page. They extract DOIs from the page using meta tags, JSON-LD, link hrefs, visible text, and HTML tables. Word-break characters are stripped and partial DOI suffixes are filtered out.
2. If no DOIs are found directly, the extension tries to resolve the page/article title to a DOI using the Crossref API first, then OpenAlex as a fallback (fuzzy title matching with token-set-ratio > 88%).
3. Found DOIs are sent to the background service worker via chrome.runtime.sendMessage.
4. The service worker checks its session cache, deduplicates in-flight requests, and calls the FORRT Replication API for any uncached DOIs.
5. Results are sent back to the content script, which renders banners and inline badges using Shadow DOM.
6. On Google Scholar, DOI pills with copy-to-clipboard popovers and replication badges are injected into the right-side .gs_ggs container of each result row (created if absent).
7. The content-general script detects SPA navigations (URL changes) and re-scans the page automatically.

License

This project is part of the FORRT initiative.