$str = "(<ref links=\" cit314-1 cit314-2 cit314-3 cit314-4 cit314-5\"/>)";

if( $str =~ s/<ref links="(.*?)"(.*?)\/>(?{ print $1, "\n" })/<ref links="$1"$2><\/ref>/ ){
    print "Match was found." . "\n";
}
print $str . "\n";