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.
- Open a document in Google Docs and click Tools Citations.
- In the sidebar, select your formatting style from MLA, APA, or Chicago Author-Date.
Add a citation source and related details
- In the Citations sidebar, under your selected style, click + Add citation source.
- Select your source type.
- 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.
- 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.
- Click Add citation source.
Learn more about how to add and edit sources.
Insert an in-text citation
- 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.
- A Cite button appears on the side of the citation source.
- Click Cite.
- The source appears in your selected style within the text of your document.
- 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
- In the Citations sidebar, hover over the source you want to edit.
- A Menu button appears on the side of the citation source.
- Click Menu Edit.
- Edit your source information in the fields.
- Recommended fields include a blue asterisk.
- At the bottom of the sidebar, click Save source.
Delete a citation source
- In the Citations sidebar, hover over the source you want to delete.
- A Menu button appears on the side of the citation source.
- Click Menu Delete.
Insert a bibliography
- In your document, place your cursor where you want the bibliography to appear.
- In the Citations sidebar at the bottom, click Insert bibliography.
A bibliography appears in your selected style.