How to add Citations & References in Word

Referencing is a prominent thing in academic writing. It is used to provide sources to other authors’ work you have referred to in your studies. In this article, I am going to share a tutorial on how you can add references for research papers in Microsoft Word.

Thankfully, Microsoft Word comes with a dedicated feature to add references to your documents. So, you don’t need any external app or add-on to do that. You can add citations to your sources and research papers in different styles. Plus, it also lets you search for references to research papers online and then directly cite them in your documents.

We have seen how to put References or cite Sources in PowerPoint. now let us see how to use the Referencing feature of Word.

How to add Citations & References in Word

Launch Microsoft Word and open your document or create a new one.

Then, go to the References tab present on main toolbar. In this tab, you will find a Citations & Bibliography section.

From here, click on the Insert Citation > Add New Source option.

You can also select a Style to add citations in the required format, such as APA, Chicago, IEEE, Harvard, MLA, etc.

Now, add details of the research paper to add its reference. You can enter type of source (journal article, book, conference proceedings, website, electronic source, etc.), title, author, year, pages, and more. Press OK button after specifying the details of your reference.

A reference for the research paper will be added to your document. To list all your references and sources in a dedicated bibliography or works cited section, click on the Bibliography option.

If you want to generate citation for a research paper automatically, you can use its Search feature. This feature basically lets you search for your sources online and then directly add their references into your document.

From the References tab, click on the Search button which will open a Search panel at the right. Type the full title of your research paper and press Enter button. It will fetch and display your research paper and similar results. Select the one you want to cite, click on the three-dot menu, and then tap on the Cite button. This will add a citation to your referred research paper in the Word document.

You can manage all your references and sources that you have added to a document using its Manage Sources option. It lets you copy, edit, delete, and search for required sources from one place.

Hope this guide helps you add references and citations of research paper and other sources to your Microsoft Word document.

Now read: How to create a Drop-down List in Word.