The paper about CPF was published in the European Sociological Review. It provides an overview of the CPF, its design and content, and also discusses the background of comparative harmonizing projects. Yes, this is the paper you should refer to when using CPF. Enjoy!
Open access paper: https://academic.oup.com/esr/advance-article/doi/10.1093/esr/jcab006/6168670
Konrad Turek, Matthijs Kalmijn, Thomas Leopold (2021), The Comparative Panel File: Harmonized Household Panel Surveys from Seven Countries, European Sociological Review, jcab006, https://doi.org/10.1093/esr/jcab006