Add citations and a bibliography

You can add citations and a bibliography to your Google Doc with these styles:

• MLA (8th ed.)
• APA (7th ed.)
• Chicago Author-Date (17th ed.)

Important: The citations tool is available in all languages, but the elements the tool generates in your document only appear in English at this time. 
For example:

• A book title you enter in the citations tool appears in the language you entered it.
• The “Bibliography” heading, “edited by,” and other elements generated by the citations tool appear in English regardless of your language in Google Docs.

You can translate auto-generated elements to another language after you insert them in your document.

To add citations and a bibliography:

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 a citation source and related details

1. In the Citations sidebar, under your selected style, click + Add citation source.
2. Select your source type.
3. Select how you accessed your source.
   • You can use a URL to search for websites or online newspapers, or use an ISBN number to search for books.
4. Enter or edit any source information in the fields.
   • Recommended fields include a blue asterisk.
   • To add multiple contributors, click + Contributor.
   • You can indicate if a contributor is an organization, such as a company.
5. Click Add citation source.

Learn more about how to add and edit sources.

Insert an in-text citation

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.

Edit a citation 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 citation source

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.

Insert a bibliography

1. In your document, place your cursor where you want the bibliography to appear.
2. In the Citations sidebar at the bottom, click Insert bibliography.
   A bibliography appears in your selected style.

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