Add citations and sources

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On this page

• Choose a citation format
• Add and edit sources
• Add in-text citations

Choose a citation format

You can use the following formats in U.S. English for in-text citations and bibliographies:

• MLA (Modern Language Association), 8th edition
• APA (American Psychological Association), 7th edition
• Chicago Manual of Style Author-Date format, 17th edition

  Note: We currently do not support the Notes and Bibliography format.

Tip: For unsupported formats that are similar, you might be able to adapt a supported format to meet your needs.

How the format works with the bibliography

How you title your bibliography depends on the format and which sources are included.

• Works cited or References—These titles are recommended by the MLA, APA, and Chicago style guides where the bibliography only includes cited sources.
• Works consulted—This title can be used with the MLA format when you include sources that you did not cite, but that the reader might find useful. If you want to use this title, update the title manually.

Set the citation format

1. Open a document in Google Docs and click Tools  Citations. 
2. In the sidebar, select your formatting style from MLA, APA, or Chicago Author-Date.

Add and edit sources

A source is any work you might reference in your document, such as a book, journal, or website. Once you add sources, you can use them to add in-text citations and create a bibliography. The bibliography includes all sources. If you add sources you don’t want to include or didn’t end up citing, you can delete them from the bibliography.

Add a source manually

1. Open your document in Docs.
2. Click ToolsCitations.
3. In the Citations section, make sure the correct format is selected.
4. Click Add citation source.
5. Choose the source type. For more details, go to About source types and access types.
6. For Accessed by, choose how you accessed the source. For more details, go to About source types and access types.
7. Add the contributor, such as author, editor, or director of a film. If you need to add an organization instead of an individual, check the Corporation/organization box. You can add multiple contributors. 
8. Add any other details about the source. For recommended details, you’ll see an asterisk (*). 
9. Click Add citation source.

   For more details about which fields to specify, refer to the relevant style manual.

Add a source automatically

You can search online for books, book sections, websites, and newspapers. The search results are used to create a source automatically.

1. Open your document in Docs.
2. Click ToolsCitations.
3. In the Citations section, make sure the correct format is selected.
4. Click Add citation source.
5. Set the source type to Book, Book section, Website, or Newspaper article.
6. Depending on the source type, select an Accessed by option:
   • For Book and Book section types, select any option.
   • For Newspaper article and Website types, select Website.
7. Click Search with an ISBN or Search with a URL and enter the book ISBN or website URL.
8. Click Search.
9. Verify the source is correct and click Continue.
10. Add any additional information to the source or edit the source.
11. Click Add citation source.

Tip: To create the source manually at any time, click Cite manually.

Edit a source

1. In the Citations sidebar, hover over the source you want to edit.
   • A Menu  button appears on the side of the citation source.
2. Click Menu   Edit.
3. Edit your source information in the fields.
   • Recommended fields include a blue asterisk.
4. At the bottom of the sidebar, click Save source.

Delete a source

Deleting a source from the Citations section does not remove anything from your document. You need to delete in-text citations and bibliography entries from your document.

1. In the Citations sidebar, hover over the source you want to delete.
   • A Menu  button appears on the side of the citation source.
2. Click Menu    Delete.

About source types & and access types

When you’re adding sources, you need to set the source type to indicate what you’re citing, such as a book, magazine, film, and so on. You also need to indicate how you accessed the source.

Source types

• Book—A standalone book that has the same authors or editors for the entire work.
• Book section—A section within a larger work where the container has its own title and authors or editors. Examples include anthologies and short story collections.
• Website—A page on a website.
• Journal article—An article in an academic journal.
• Newspaper article—An article in a newspaper or magazine.
• Film—A movie.
• TV series—An entire television series.
• TV episode—A single episode of a television series.
• Miscellaneous—A generic source type when other types are not applicable.

Accessed by

• Print, On film, or On TV—Use for books, magazines, films, or TV series identified using publication information.
• Website—Use for works identified using a URL, such as websites or online copies of books.
• Online database—Use for works retrieved from an online database or service, such as JSTOR, YouTube, or Hulu. These works may also have a URL provided by the database or service.
• Physically—(Miscellaneous source type only) Use for works accessed physically or in person, such as works of art in a museum or conferences that took place at a given time and place.
• Website (originally in print)—(Newspaper article source type only) Use for works in newspaper articles where it is important to distinguish between publications originally published online and publications originally published in print that were then accessed online.

Add in-text citations

In-text citations (or parenthetical references) appear in the text of your document and indicate the source of a quote or reference. Citations usually appear at the end of the sentence containing the quote or reference.

1. In the text of your document, place your cursor where you want the citation to appear.
   • In the Citations sidebar, hover over the source you want to cite.
2. A Cite button appears on the side of the citation source.
3. Click Cite.
   • The source appears in your selected style within the text of your document.
4. If a “#” appears in the text of your document, delete it or replace it with the page number(s) for your citation.

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