diff --git a/org-roam-db.el b/org-roam-db.el
index 31926f6..10c2e0a 100644
--- a/org-roam-db.el
+++ b/org-roam-db.el
@@ -470,7 +470,7 @@ INFO is the org-element parsed buffer."
     (let (rows)
       (dolist (ref refs)
         (save-match-data
-          (cond ((string-equal (substring ref 0 1) "@")
+          (cond ((string-prefix-p "@" ref)
                  (push (vector node-id (substring ref 1) "cite") rows))
                 ((string-match org-link-plain-re ref)
                  (push (vector node-id (match-string 2 ref) (match-string 1 ref)) rows))
diff --git a/org-roam-node.el b/org-roam-node.el
index 03e9aa8..9883139 100644
--- a/org-roam-node.el
+++ b/org-roam-node.el
@@ -260,7 +260,7 @@ Return nil if there's no node with such REF."
        ((string-match org-link-plain-re ref)
         (setq type (match-string 1 ref)
               path (match-string 2 ref)))
-       ((string-equal (substring ref 0 1) "@")
+       ((string-prefix-p "@" ref)
         (setq type "cite"
               path (substring ref 1))))
       (when (and type path)