Frequently asked questions

Citeory drafts, verifies, and checks academic citations in APA 7, MLA 9, Turabian 9 (Notes–Bibliography), AMA 11, and Bluebook. Paste a DOI, a URL, or a rough citation and the rules engine produces a correctly formatted reference, an in-text citation, and a note form — and verifies the source actually exists.

No. Every citation is produced by a deterministic, rule-based engine — the same input always produces the same output. One narrow, disclosed exception: when a pasted citation is too messy to parse, an AI model may help extract the fields, but it never writes citation text. See the AI Use Policy.

You can try citation formatting without one, subject to guest limits. An account adds the Bucket List, citation sessions, verification history, the add-ins, and sync across devices.

There is a free tier with monthly limits, and paid plans for unlimited use — current pricing is on the homepage. Students verified with an eligible school email may qualify for student pricing.

APA 7th edition, MLA 9th edition, Turabian 9th edition (Notes–Bibliography), AMA 11th edition, and Bluebook. Each is implemented from the published manual’s rules, not from templates scraped off the web.

The web app at citeory.com, a Microsoft Word add-in, a Google Docs add-on, a macOS app for Apple Pages, the Scout mobile app (iOS and Android), a browser extension for Chrome/Edge/Firefox, plus a developer API, an embeddable widget, and an MCP server. The tour shows each one.

Paste the DOI (or the doi.org link) into the box and press Normalize. Citeory resolves it against Crossref and other scholarly indexes, fills every field the record carries, verifies it, and formats the reference in your chosen style.

Yes — that is the main use. Paste whatever you have (a reference from an old paper, a copied footnote, a citation in another style) and the parser extracts the fields, verifies the source, and reformats it correctly in the style you choose.

Paste the URL. Citeory reads the page’s own metadata; whatever is genuinely absent is left out and the rule checks tell you what the style requires you to do about it (for example, APA 7’s (n.d.) for no date). Nothing is invented to fill a gap.

Dozens — journal articles, books and chapters, websites, videos, podcasts, dissertations, data sets, conference papers, legal sources, social media, AI outputs like a ChatGPT conversation, and more. The source-type picker is grouped and searchable, and the APA 7 guides walk the common ones.

Choose the AI source type (or paste a description) and Citeory formats it per the current guidance in each style — for example, APA 7’s pattern crediting the company as author with the model and date. All four major styles are covered.

Yes. Every result includes the reference entry, the matching in-text citation, and the note forms — a full note and a shortened note for Turabian and Bluebook, where the note is the native citation form.

Use the add-ins or the Copy for Word button: references are inserted with true italics, correct font, double spacing, and a real hanging indent — not spaces pretending to be one.

A question-at-a-time wizard for when you have the source in your hands rather than a link: pick what kind of thing it is, answer one plain-language question per field, and Citeory assembles and formats it. It is on the web app, in Word, and in Google Docs.

The source was independently found in scholarly infrastructure — Crossref, DataCite, OpenAlex, Semantic Scholar, PubMed, Open Library, or Google Books — and the record you are citing matches what those indexes say. The provenance line names which services confirmed it.

Because AI writing tools routinely invent references that look perfect and do not exist. Citeory checks existence, not just formatting: a reference that cannot be found anywhere is flagged instead of silently formatted.

A score for how certain Citeory is that it matched your input to the right real-world source, based on how many independent services agreed and how well the fields line up. Below 75%, Citeory shows the candidate matches and asks you to choose rather than guessing.

Two independent sources describe the same DOI differently — for example, Crossref and OpenAlex disagree about the title. Citeory shows you both readings so you can confirm the right one before using it.

Yes — the reference-list checker takes a pasted bibliography and analyzes every entry: formatting against the style’s rules, and existence against the scholarly indexes.

Each one is a specific rule from the style manual that your citation is missing or bending — a required field that is absent, a recommendation worth following. Required-field gaps get a loud box with a one-click way to fill them in.

Saved-reference collections — one bucket per paper, class, or project. Each saved item keeps its verified metadata and your note, and can be inserted into any document surface or exported.

The rolling batch of sources you collect in one sitting — from the browser extension, Scout, or imports. Open a session in the web app or an add-in and insert the whole reference list at once, in order.

Yes — export your buckets as RIS, BibTeX, or EndNote from the web app. Your references are yours; there is no lock-in.

Yes — buckets can be shared. Recipients see a read-only "Shared with you" section in the web app and the add-ins: they can insert from it but not change it.

Citeory’s mobile companion (iOS and Android) for capturing sources where you find them — scan a book’s barcode in the library, photograph a paper, save a link. Captures land in your Scout bucket, ready to cite properly later from any surface.

In Word: Insert → Add-ins → Store, search for Citeory, and add it. It works in Word for Windows, Mac, the web, and iPad — no admin rights needed. Setup detail is on the support page.

The formatted reference at your cursor (true italics, Times New Roman 12, double-spaced, hanging indent), the matching in-text citation, and — in supported Word versions — a real Word footnote carrying the note form.

Yes — "Add to Word sources" files the source into Word’s built-in Source Manager (References → Manage Sources), so it is available to Word’s own bibliography tools too.

The Guided tab. It opens in a larger window so the questions and preview have room, and the finished citation comes back to the pane ready to insert.

Close the pane, then in Word: File → Options → Trust Center → Trust Center Settings → Trusted Add-in Catalogs, check "Next time Office starts, clear all previously-started web add-ins cache," restart Word, and reopen Citeory.

From the Google Workspace Marketplace, or in a document: Extensions → Add-ons → Get add-ons, then search for Citeory. Open it from the Extensions menu afterwards.

The same core flow as Word: normalize a citation, review the checks, and insert the reference or in-text form with native italics. The guided builder opens as a dialog, and buckets and citation sessions are available for inserting saved work.

Pages has no add-in API the way Word and Docs do. Citeory for Pages is a native macOS app whose panel sits beside your document and hands each citation over through the clipboard.

One, and only for the window layout: macOS asks whether Citeory may control Pages. That is Automation, it is scoped to Pages alone, and it is what lets the app size the two windows to share the screen. Decline it and everything else still works. It does not ask for Accessibility — earlier builds did, and that use was removed.

Two ways. Press Add to Pages: the citation is copied with its formatting, Pages comes to the front, and a banner tells you it is ready — click where you want it and press ⌘+V. Or drag the reference straight out of the panel and drop it in. A whole bucket or citation session can be dragged the same way, placing an entire bibliography in one gesture. Either way italics and the hanging indent come across. Note that Add to Pages replaces whatever was on your clipboard.

Yes. Check my document’s reference list reads the list out of your open Pages document — it looks for a heading saying References, Works Cited, or Bibliography — and grades every entry against the style’s own rules: formatting, missing fields, and whether the source exists in any catalog. It only ever reads; Citeory never writes to your document.

It follows your Mac’s appearance by default. The button in the panel’s top-right corner cycles between matching your Mac, always light, and always dark, and remembers the choice.

That is the default — opening Citeory sizes Pages to the rest of the screen. Panel Position in the Citeory menu moves the panel to the left, right, top, bottom, or free-floating, and Re-dock to Pages re-applies the layout. Floating leaves your Pages window exactly where it is.

Yes — every style’s note form is available, and Add footnote copies it the same way. The full reference and in-text forms work identically.

From the Mac App Store (search "Citeory for Pages"), or the notarized direct download linked from the tour page when available.

One thing: while you are reading a source, click the Citeory icon (or press Alt+Shift+C) and it saves that page — using the page’s own citation metadata, DOI, or URL — to your citation session. Collect a whole sitting with one click each, then format everything at once in the app.

Saved sources go to your account’s citation session, so the extension only works signed in. Use the Sign in button in the popup; if the pop-up window cannot open, paste an extension token from your account page instead.

Only the page you explicitly choose to cite, at the moment you click — its title, URL, and citation meta tags. No browsing history, no tracking, no analytics, and nothing on pages you don’t act on. The full disclosure is in the store listing and the privacy policy.

Chrome and Edge (same package), Firefox, and Safari via the Mac App Store. Any Chromium-based browser that installs from the Chrome Web Store generally works too.

Email and password, or your institutional Microsoft account where your school uses Microsoft 365. Password sign-in is handled by our identity provider; Citeory never sees or stores your password.

From your account page — cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period and you keep access until then. Payments and the billing portal are handled by Stripe; Citeory never touches your card number.

From the account page, or by emailing help@citeory.com. Export your buckets first if you want to keep them (RIS, BibTeX, or EndNote) — deletion removes your content.

A sign-in alternative for surfaces where the OAuth pop-up can’t open (Safari’s extension, restrictive setups): generate the token on your account page and paste it into the extension’s "Use a token instead" field.

Student verification unlocks student-eligible pricing where offered. The verification code is single-purpose, expires quickly, and only a hash of it is ever stored.

Yes — site licensing for writing centers, departments, and whole institutions, with seats claimed by school-email domain matching or signed access links. Email help@citeory.com to start a conversation.

Microsoft Entra ID (institutional Microsoft accounts) is supported today. SAML/Shibboleth/CAS and LTI are on the roadmap and honestly labeled as such in our procurement documents.

Yes — a completed HECVAT response, a VPAT/accessibility conformance report, and a procurement overview with data-flow details are maintained and current. The public security summary is at /security; request the full documents at help@citeory.com.

Minimally: an email address, an optional display name, and the citations students choose to save. No grades, no SSNs, no advertising use, no selling data, and no training AI models on user content. Details in the privacy policy.

No. Citation text is never used to train any model — ours or anyone else’s. The one AI-assisted parsing path sends only the text being parsed, to a provider that does not train on API inputs by default. See the AI Use Policy.

No and no. The business is subscriptions. Data goes only to the operational providers that run the service (hosting, sign-in, payments, email), each receiving the minimum needed.

Email security@citeory.com. The disclosure policy — response targets, safe harbor, scope — is published at /security, with the machine-readable notice at /.well-known/security.txt.

Yes — written, dated policies for vulnerability management, patching, risk management, incident response, and disaster recovery, reviewed at least annually, with a tested database-restore drill. The public summary is at /security.

The scholarly indexes are third-party services; when one is briefly unreachable Citeory verifies against the others and says which ones answered. Formatting is unaffected — it never depends on the network.

That is working as designed: automatic matching wasn’t sure enough to pick for you. Review the candidates — if one is your source, choose it; if none are, keep your own fields and the checks will tell you what’s missing.

Hard-refresh (Ctrl+Shift+R, or Cmd+Shift+R on a Mac). The app ships fingerprinted assets, so a normal refresh usually suffices; a hard refresh clears the last edge cases.

Use the contact form at the bottom of this page, or email help@citeory.com. Include what you did, what you expected, and what happened instead — screenshots help.