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.
4. Enter your 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.

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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