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
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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
- Go to Plugins Add New
- Search for “CiteKit” or “citation manager”
- Click Install Now, then Activate
Via ZIP Upload
- Download the .zip from the WordPress Plugin Directory
- Go to Plugins Add New Upload Plugin
- Upload the .zip and click Install Now, then Activate
Via FTP
- Extract the .zip and upload the
reference-managerfolder to/wp-content/plugins/ - 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
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Which fields are supported per citation?
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Author, Title, Year, and URL.
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Is this a replacement for Zotero or EndNote?
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No. CiteKit is optimised for WordPress publishing workflows, not full academic reference management.
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Does this work with the block editor?
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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.
ContributorsTranslate “CiteKit – Citation and Reference Manager” into your language.
Interested in development?
Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.
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