Working with citations

How to get citations out of ResearchAnything and into your own work: from a research run, from Cite, and into a reference manager. It also covers what to check before you hand anything in.

01Pick the right tool

02From a research run

1. Open the run and find the source in its source list. Clicking a citation chip in the answer and then the source's title takes you there.
2. Open the source. Its citation is under the analysis.
3. Choose a style tab and copy.

These citations are built for online sources from what the page says about itself. Author names appear as the page gives them, and missing fields are filled with fallbacks such as n.d. for no date. See When a field is missing.

For a journal article, book or report, or for a style other than these six, paste the source's address or DOI into Cite instead. Cite reads the full record behind a DOI, ISBN, arXiv or PubMed ID.

03Build a reference list with Cite

1. Open Cite and choose Link.
2. Pick your format from the menu.
3. Paste a link, DOI, ISBN, arXiv or PubMed ID, or a title, and press Enter. For a title, choose the right work from the possible matches.
4. Check the result. If a note says a field is missing, choose Add it and fill it in. Use Edit details to fix anything else or change the type of work.
5. Choose Save to list. Repeat for each source.

To cite many sources at once, paste them one per line. Each line is looked up on its own and reports whether it was added, was already in your list, needs you to choose, or was not found. Up to 50 lines are taken from one paste.

Each entry also has an in-text form for the chosen style, such as (Doe, 2025) or [1]. Click it to copy.

You can switch the format at any time. The whole list re-renders at once, with no new lookup. Full details are on the Cite page.

04Into a reference manager

From Your list, choose Export and pick a file type:

05Using an exported answer

Export on a run page downloads the answer as Markdown. Claims carry markers such as [S1], and a Sources list at the end pairs each marker with a title and address:

Grid batteries now cover part of the evening peak in several markets [S1],
though most still discharge for under four hours [S2].

## Sources

- **[S1]** How grid batteries changed the evening peak — https://www.example.org/energy/grid-batteries
- **[S2]** Storage capacity by state — https://data.example.gov/storage

To turn the markers into footnotes, replace each [Sn] in the text with [^Sn], then write a footnote for each source. Take the footnote text from the source's citation on the run page, or from Cite in your style:

Grid batteries now cover part of the evening peak in several markets[^S1],
though most still discharge for under four hours[^S2].

[^S1]: Jane Doe (2025). How grid batteries changed the evening peak.
       Example Energy Review. https://www.example.org/energy/grid-batteries
[^S2]: data.example.gov (n.d.). Storage capacity by state. data.example.gov.
       https://data.example.gov/storage

The same approach works for other outputs: superscripts and an ordered list in HTML, or \cite{...} keys with a .bib file from Cite in LaTeX.

06Check before you hand it in

Citations are built by fixed rules from the details a source exposes, so they are only as complete as those details. Before a citation goes into a paper, a filing or a report:

• Look for fallbacks. n.d., a site name in the author position, or a web address as the title all mean a field was missing. Fill it in with Cite.
• Check names and capitalisation. Names on run citations are printed as the page gives them. Cite prints titles as entered and does not change their case, so adjust them if your style requires sentence or title case.
• Check the claim, not just the citation. Click the citation chip and read the snippet, or open the source. On RA-2, citations have already been checked against the sources, but you are the last reader.

07Style tips

• Use one style per document. Mixing styles from different tools is easy to do and will fail a style review.
• Keep access dates for online sources. Pages change and move. An access date lets a reader find an archived copy.
• Check links before you publish. A link that worked during research can break later.
• Ask for the style up front. Journals and courses often require one style. Pick it in Cite before you build the list.

08Where to go next

• How citations appear in an answer → Citations
• Every Cite format and option → Cite
• How sources are found and graded → Sources and library