CiteKit – Citation and Reference Manager

Description

CiteKit makes it easy to add professional in-text citations to your WordPress content using simple shortcodes. Automatically generate a bibliography at the end of any post with [bibliography], styled in APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, and other major formats.

Every citation gets a stable unique ID the moment it’s inserted. Use the Reference Library to track, audit, and manage every citation across your entire site – and check whether your source URLs are still live.

Features

  • Inline [cite] Shortcode with Auto-ID
    Insert citations directly into post content using [cite]. Unique IDs are automatically assigned, or set a custom ID with [cite id=”who-2024″].

  • CiteBox — Post-Level Citation Editor
    A dedicated metabox in the post and page editor shows every citation in the current post. Fill in author, title, year, and URL without leaving the editor.

  • Reference Library
    A central admin page listing every citation used across your site. Citations appear in the library the moment they are inserted into any post.

  • Add Reference from Library
    Create a reference directly from the library with a custom ID. Live ID conflict detection prevents duplicates before you save.

  • Link Health Checker
    Check whether your source URLs are still reachable.

  • Auto-Generated Bibliography
    Use [bibliography] to automatically output a formatted bibliography for the current post. Entries are ordered and backlink to their corresponding in-text references.

  • Manual Bibliography Composition
    Create a standalone bibliography with [bibliography title=”References”] Source 1 ; Source 2 [/bibliography] — ideal for static lists or non-[cite] workflows.

  • Multiple Citation Style Support
    Output in APA, MLA, Chicago (Author-Date and Notes-Bibliography), Harvard, or IEEE using [bibliography style=”apa|mla|chicago-ad|chicago-nb|harvard|ieee”].

  • Default Style Setting
    Set your preferred citation style once in Settings Citations. All [bibliography] shortcodes site-wide use this default unless overridden per post.

  • Tooltip-Style Inline Notes
    Add lightweight footnotes or definitions with [tooltip]…[/tooltip]. Renders as clean hover tooltips with no visual clutter.

CiteKit Shortcodes

  • [cite] — Inline citation with auto-generated UUID
  • [cite id=”custom-id”] — Inline citation with a user-defined ID
  • [bibliography] — Auto-generated bibliography for the current post
  • [bibliography style=”mla” title=”References”] — Override style and heading per post
  • [bibliography] Smith, 2026; John Jacobs, The Red Roof, 2021 [/bibliography] — Manual entry list
  • [tooltip]Note text here[/tooltip] — Inline hover tooltip

Supported styles: apa, mla, chicago-ad, chicago-nb, harvard, ieee

Installation

Via WordPress Admin

  1. Go to Plugins Add New
  2. Search for “CiteKit” or “citation manager”
  3. Click Install Now, then Activate

Via ZIP Upload

  1. Download the .zip from the WordPress Plugin Directory
  2. Go to Plugins Add New Upload Plugin
  3. Upload the .zip and click Install Now, then Activate

Via FTP

  1. Extract the .zip and upload the reference-manager folder to /wp-content/plugins/
  2. Activate from the Plugins screen in your WordPress dashboard

Post-Installation Setup

After activation, go to Citations Settings to choose your default bibliography style and heading. Then:

  • Insert [cite id=”your-id”] anywhere in a post to place an inline citation
  • Open the post editor — the CiteBox metabox shows all citations in that post for you to fill in metadata
  • Add [bibliography] at the end of the post to render the full reference list
  • Visit Citations Reference Library to see, audit, and manage all citations across your site

FAQ

Which fields are supported per citation?

Author, Title, Year, and URL.

Is this a replacement for Zotero or EndNote?

No. CiteKit is optimised for WordPress publishing workflows, not full academic reference management.

Does this work with the block editor?

Yes. CiteKit shortcodes work in both the classic editor and the block editor.

Reviews

There are no reviews for this plugin.

Contributors & Developers

“CiteKit – Citation and Reference Manager” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.

Contributors

Changelog

2.0.0

  • New: Redesigned Reference Library
  • New: Link health checker – checks whether source URLs are live
  • New: Settings page (Citations Settings) — set a default bibliography style and heading used by all [bibliography] shortcodes site-wide
  • New: DB version gating — schema migrations only run when needed, not on every admin page load
  • Improved: ID column added to CiteKit metabox
  • Fixed: [bibliography] heading now correctly uses the saved default title in all rendering paths

1.0.0

  • Initial release
  • Shortcode support for [cite], [bibliography], and [tooltip]
  • Post-level citation editor (metabox)
  • Citation Library in admin sidebar
  • APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, IEEE citation style support