Skip to content
CiteKit
Open Reference Library

Citation Generator

The Citation Generator turns Source Metadata into a formatted citation. Start with a URL, DOI, ISBN, PubMed ID, title or keyword search, AI/LLM source, or manual source entry, choose a citation style, review the metadata, and generate a citation you can copy or save as a reusable Reference.

The basic workflow

  1. Add your Source. Start with a supported identifier, URL, search, AI/LLM source, or manual source entry.
  2. Pick a citation style. Choose the style you want CiteKit to use for the formatted citation.
  3. Review the Source Metadata. CiteKit displays the fields it found or that you entered. Edit any field that needs correction before formatting.
  4. Generate the citation. CiteKit formats the Reference in the selected citation style.
  5. Copy the citation or save the Reference. The formatted citation is an output; the reusable structured record can be saved to your Reference Library and organized into one or more Reference Sets.

What you can add

The Citation Generator supports several ways to create or complete a Reference:

  • URL — use a web page as the Source and retrieve available page metadata.
  • DOI — use a digital object identifier to retrieve metadata for a scholarly or research work.
  • ISBN — use an ISBN-10 or ISBN-13 to retrieve book metadata.
  • PubMed ID — use a PubMed identifier for biomedical and life-sciences records.
  • Title or keyword search — search for a work when you do not have an identifier.
  • AI / LLM source — create a Reference for supported AI systems when the AI output itself is the Source being cited.
  • Manual entry — enter Source Metadata directly when automatic lookup is unavailable or incomplete.

How metadata extraction works

For web pages, CiteKit can use metadata exposed by the Source page to populate Reference fields. Depending on the page, this can include structured or embedded metadata such as:

  1. JSON-LD structured data
  2. Highwire / Google Scholar metadata
  3. Open Graph metadata
  4. Dublin Core metadata

If the Source exposes complete metadata, CiteKit can populate more of the Reference automatically. If fields are missing or incorrect, review and edit them before generating the citation or saving the Reference.

The citation engine

The Citation Generator uses Citation Style Language (CSL) processing to turn structured Reference data into formatted citations. The selected citation style controls details such as author presentation, title treatment, punctuation, date placement, and field order.

The important distinction is that the citation style changes the formatted output, not the underlying Reference. You can reuse the same Reference in another style without rebuilding its Source Metadata.

Editing before formatting

Retrieved metadata is not always complete. An author may be missing, a publication date may be incomplete, or a title may need correction. Review the Reference fields before generating the final citation and edit any values that need attention.

Those structured fields describe the Reference. The formatted citation is generated from them, so correcting the Reference gives CiteKit better data to use in later citation, bibliography, and publishing workflows.

Saving to the Reference Library

Saving from the Citation Generator saves the underlying Reference, not merely the formatted citation. The Reference can then be reused from the Reference Library and organized into one or more Reference Sets.

This lets one Source record move through multiple workflows:

  • generate a citation in one style,
  • reuse the same Reference in another style,
  • add it to multiple Reference Sets,
  • include it in a bibliography,
  • check its identifiers or URLs,
  • use its structured data when generating Citation Schema, or
  • publish it through a Live Source List Embed as part of a Reference Set.

Citation versus Reference

A Reference is the reusable structured CiteKit record representing a Source. A Citation is a formatted or published acknowledgement generated from that Reference.

The Citation Generator therefore sits between the two:

Source → Reference → formatted Citation

Saving the Reference preserves the structured source information so it can be reused beyond the single citation you generated.

What’s next