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Citations Deep Dive

Capture sources and format them in APA 7th, MLA 9th, Harvard or Chicago 17th, with in-text citations and a reference-list checker.

Overview

The Citations feature automatically captures source information and formats it correctly for academic bibliographies. No more manual formatting — select a source, capture it, and export properly formatted citations.

Who benefits most: Students writing research papers, anyone who needs to cite sources accurately, users who struggle with formatting rules.

Supported Citation Formats

APA 7th Edition

Used in: Psychology, education, social sciences

Basic format:

Author, A. A. (Year). Title of work. Publisher. https://doi.org/xxxxx

Example:

Smith, J. D. (2024). Understanding accessibility in education. Academic Press. https://doi.org/10.1234/example

MLA 9th Edition

Used in: Humanities, literature, arts

Basic format:

Author. “Title of Article.” Website Name, Publisher, Day Month Year, URL.

Example:

Smith, John. “Understanding Accessibility in Education.” Academic Resources, Academic Press, 15 Jan. 2024, www.example.com/article.

Chicago 17th Edition

Used in: History, some humanities

Author–date format:

Author, First. Year. Title. Place: Publisher.

Example:

Smith, John. 2024. Understanding Accessibility in Education. New York: Academic Press.

AssisT uses Chicago’s author–date system, not footnotes.

Harvard

Used in: Business, general academic

Basic format:

Author (Year) Title. Place: Publisher.

Example:

Smith, J. (2024) Understanding accessibility in education. New York: Academic Press.

All Settings Explained

Default Format

SettingOptionsDefault
Default formatHarvard (Cite Them Right) / APA 7th / MLA 9th / Chicago 17th (author–date)Harvard

Set your most-used format. Your choice is remembered between sessions and across the popup and the library, so you set it once at the start of an assignment. You can still change the format of an individual citation.

These four are the styles AssisT offers. If your department asks for a style that is not on the list, export as BibTeX or RIS and format it in a reference manager.

Other Settings

Citations has one setting, Verify citations online (off by default; see below). Auto-detection of author, date, publisher and title always runs, and you review the result before saving. The style you choose decides how the list is ordered, and copied references use a hanging indent.

What auto-detection finds:

  • Author: From byline, meta tags, or article schema
  • Date: Publication date from various sources
  • Publisher: Site name, organisation
  • Title: Page title, article headline
  • URL: Current page address

Step-by-Step Usage

Capturing a Citation

Method 1: From the popup

  1. Navigate to the source page
  2. Click AssisT icon and open the Writing group
  3. Under Citations, click Save Citation
  4. Review the auto-detected information
  5. Click Save

Method 2: From the highlight menu

  1. Highlight the text you want to cite
  2. Click Cite (the pin icon, Save as Citation) in the highlight menu
  3. The citation is created with your quote attached
  4. Review and save

(The highlight menu has a second Cite button, with scales, that is Analyze Citation. See Checking a Source below.)

Method 3: Right-click

  1. Right-click the page
  2. Choose Save Citation

Method 4: Type it yourself

  1. Open the Citation Library (see below)
  2. Click New citation, or paste a DOI into Add by DOI
  3. Fill in the source details, choose the source type and save

Editing a Citation

  1. Open the Citation Library
  2. Find the citation to edit
  3. Click Edit on its card
  4. Modify fields as needed
  5. Save

Common edits:

  • Correcting author names
  • Adding missing page numbers
  • Adjusting dates
  • Fixing titles

Using Citations in Your Work

Copy individual citation:

  1. Find the citation in the Citation Library
  2. Use the copy buttons on its card (the reference, the in-text citation, or the quote with its citation)
  3. Paste into your document

Copy all citations (bibliography):

  1. In the Citation Library, click Copy bibliography
  2. Paste into your document

Checking a Source

With AI switched on, Analyze Citation in the highlight menu takes a quick look at the clues in a source and gives a plain rating: Looks reliable, Check before you use it or Hard to tell, with the reasons behind it. There is deliberately no score: a number counted from a few clues looks far more precise than it is. Treat the rating as a first look, not a verdict, and read the source yourself before you rely on it. See AI Assist for details.

Verify Citations Online

Verify citations online, in the Citations settings in the popup, is off by default. With it on, AssisT can look a reference up by its title in Semantic Scholar, an online catalogue of research papers, when it has no DOI. Only the first 120 characters of the title are sent. Turning it on asks for your consent and for Chrome’s permission to reach Semantic Scholar.

Citation Library

Open Your Citations

  1. Click AssisT icon and open the Writing group
  2. Under Citations, click Citation Library
  3. See all saved citations. Quick View in the same place shows a short list without leaving the page

Organisation

Sorting: Newest first, Title A-Z, Author A-Z or Year (newest).

Finding and grouping:

  • Search across your citations
  • Collections keep citations for one assignment together
  • Tags label citations your own way
  • Remove duplicates merges repeated entries without losing anything you wrote

Export Options

FormatDescriptionUse Case
BibTeX (.bib)Standard bibliography formatLaTeX documents, academic tools
RIS (.ris)Research Information Systems formatZotero, Mendeley, EndNote import
CSL-JSON (.json)Citation Style Language dataZotero, Mendeley, Pandoc; can be imported back
CSV (.csv)Spreadsheet-compatibleExcel, Google Sheets analysis
AssisT JSON (.json)AssisT’s own structured dataBackup, moving to another computer
Reference list, plain text (.txt)Formatted bibliographyReady-to-paste into documents

Import works the same way round: Import accepts .ris, .bib, .csl and .json files, so you can bring an existing library in from Zotero, and it lands in the library alongside anything you captured from the web.

Bulk actions: tick several citations to copy a bibliography, export, file into a collection or remove them together. Removed citations go to Recently removed, where you can restore them, so removing the wrong one is not permanent.

New in Version 1.0.0

In-Text Citations and Page Locators

As well as the reference-list entry, the library gives you the in-text citation for a source. Add a page locator (a page, a page range, a chapter, a paragraph) and the in-text form is built with it. Copying puts a rich version and a plain version on the clipboard at the same time, so it pastes correctly into a word processor and into a plain text box.

Reference-List Checker

Open Check your essay against your reference list, paste your essay text, and AssisT matches every in-text citation against your saved references. It reports three things: citations that match a saved reference, citations with nothing to match, and saved references you never cited. Where a citation nearly matches, it suggests the record it probably meant rather than just flagging it. It is the check a marker does, done before you hand the work in.

The comparison runs on your device. Your essay is not sent to any AI provider or any server.

More Source Types

The type list covers 10 kinds of source, including chapters in an edited book and theses, and it handles a source with no date rather than making you invent one.

Add by DOI

Paste a DOI and AssisT looks the source up in Crossref and fills in the fields, which is faster and more accurate than typing a journal article by hand. Only the DOI is sent. The first time, AssisT asks whether it may send it; you can change your answer in the popup under Advanced options, Your data.

Also in 1.0.0

  • Voice capture: say “cite this”, “site this”, “capture the source” or “save the citation” while reading and AssisT starts a citation from the passage you are on. It works even with voice typing off, and it asks about dictation first
  • Collections and Tags in the library, and Remove duplicates
  • Copy bibliography for the whole library or for the citations you have ticked
  • Alt+Shift+U moves focus to Undo in the Saved tray that appears after a save

Common Use Cases

Research Paper

Workflow:

  1. Set default format to match assignment requirements
  2. As you research, capture each source
  3. Use Analyze Citation on questionable sources, and read them yourself
  4. Continue until research complete
  5. Click Copy bibliography (or export a file)
  6. Paste into your Works Cited / References page

Tips:

  • Capture more than you’ll use — easy to delete later
  • Capture immediately when you find a useful source
  • Include page numbers for direct quotes

Annotated Bibliography

Workflow:

  1. Capture the citation normally
  2. On the Notes step, write your summary and evaluation
  3. The note is saved with the citation; open it with Edit to read or change it
  4. Copy the note into your document next to the reference

Multiple Format Requirements

Scenario: Different classes require different formats.

Solution:

  1. Capture citation once
  2. The Citation Library stores the source data
  3. Switch the style, then copy the bibliography
  4. Same source, different formatting

Group Project

Sharing citations:

  1. One person compiles bibliography
  2. Export as AssisT JSON
  3. Share the file with group members
  4. Others use Import
  5. Everyone has same citations

Troubleshooting

Auto-Detection Gets Wrong Information

Solutions:

  1. Always review before saving
  2. Edit after capture to correct
  3. Some pages have poor metadata
  4. Add information manually

Missing Author

Solutions:

  1. Check page for byline
  2. Look for “About” or “Contact” pages
  3. Use organisation name as author
  4. Format allows “Unknown” in some cases

Wrong Date

Solutions:

  1. Look for “Published” or “Updated” date
  2. Check article metadata
  3. Use last updated if no publish date
  4. Access date as fallback

Format Looks Wrong

Solutions:

  1. Double-check format settings
  2. Some edge cases format differently
  3. Manual adjustments may be needed
  4. Compare with style guide examples

Can’t Find Saved Citations

Solutions:

  1. Check the Citation Library
  2. Filter may be active — clear filters
  3. Citations stored per Chrome profile
  4. Check if on correct Chrome account

Tips for Better Citations

Capture Immediately

When you find a useful source:

  1. Stop reading
  2. Capture citation
  3. Continue research

Later you won’t remember where you found information.

Use Unique Identifiers

If available, include:

  • DOI (Digital Object Identifier)
  • URL as fallback

These make citations more reliable.

Note Page Numbers

For direct quotes or specific ideas:

  1. Capture citation
  2. Add the page number in the locator field
  3. Your in-text citations will need these

Verify Against Style Guide

Auto-formatting covers most cases, but:

  • Complex sources may need manual adjustment
  • New or unusual source types may not match
  • When in doubt, check the official style guide

For Educators & Parents

Teaching Citation Skills

  1. Start with one format — Master it before learning others
  2. Practice auto-capture — Reduces mechanical burden
  3. Teach source evaluation — Critical thinking about sources. AssisT’s quick check gives its reasons, which are a starting point for that conversation
  4. Regular reference-list checks — Catch issues early

Common Student Mistakes

MistakeSolution
Forgetting to citeCapture as you go
Wrong formatSet default correctly
Incomplete informationAlways review before saving
Not verifying auto-detectQuick check saves time later

Academic Integrity

Citations tool helps avoid plagiarism by:

  • Making proper citation easy
  • Tracking all sources used
  • Encouraging evaluation of sources
  • Providing clear attribution

Note: Tool assists with formatting, not judgment. Students must still:

  • Determine what needs citing
  • Quote accurately
  • Paraphrase appropriately