Can Scribbr create a reference list for me?

Frequently asked questions: Citation Editing

What does the Citation Editing service include?

When performing the Citation Editing service, your Scribbr expert will:

• Ensure that your chosen citation style is applied consistently
• Ensure that punctuation and capitalization, as well as the use of “et al.,” are correct
• Check for any inconsistencies between your in-text citations and your list of references
• Find missing information in certain cases (e.g., when the publisher of a book is missing from a reference list entry)
• Add missing authors should “et al.” be used incorrectly (if your document provides enough information about a given source to allow your expert to research it)
• Check the layout and consistency of your reference list
• Flag reference list entries that seem incomplete (in the event that there is not enough information to research the sources in question)

The Citation Editing service does not include the following:

• Creating a reference list from scratch
• Creating references for website URLs
• Conducting research to find missing information when all or most of the sources in a text are incomplete
• Checking whether the information that is already included in a text is correct (e.g., the spellings of authors’ names, dates of publication, titles, etc.)
• Providing feedback on the quality and/or relevance of sources
• Providing feedback on the number of citations provided
• Editing or formatting quotations
• Adjusting the formatting of in-text citations (e.g., converting in-text references to footnotes)
• Converting existing references into a different citation style
• Adding missing sources to the reference list

What information do I need to provide for the Citation Editing service?

When booking the Citation Editing service, you’ll be asked to indicate how many sources you have in your reference list. You’ll also need to indicate which reference style you’re using. We provide the service for the styles APA (6th and 7th editions), MLA, Chicago, Vancouver, Harvard, Deutsche Zitierweise, and university-specific guidelines.

Please note that we do not create entire references or apply style guidelines from scratch. Please also make sure that the information you added for your reference is correct. We cannot research each reference list and validate its content; we focus on formatting your reference list and in-text citations according to your selected citation style.

If you only add URLs, for example, we cannot edit it or create a reference entry for you. Rather, please ensure that you have already added the entries so that our experts can make sure it’s consistent and flawless in style.

If your citations are already good to go, and you just want to do a last check, you can also use our AI-powered APA Citation Checker. This tool flags minor mistakes that you can then fix yourself.

Which languages are supported?

We offer the human Citation Editing service for:

• English
• German
• Dutch
• French

The APA Citation Checker tool can check documents in the following languages:

• English
• German
• Dutch
• French
• Spanish

Which citation styles are supported?

The APA Citation Checker is an AI-based tool that currently supports APA Style 6th edition (2009) and 7th edition (2020). We are working hard to support more citation styles in the future.

Scribbr’s Citation Editing Service is performed by a human citation expert and supports APA 6, APA 7, MLA, Chicago, Vancouver, Harvard, Deutsche Zitierweise, and university-specific guidelines. Unfortunately, due to their complexity, we cannot check law-based reference styles.

If you have your own version of any of the above styles (for example, a specific Harvard guideline), please select “own guidelines” and upload your manual during the upload process.

Can I order a Structure Check, Clarity Check or Paper Formatting service separately?

The Structure and Clarity Check can only be purchased in conjunction with Proofreading & Editing. Providing feedback on structure and clarity requires extensive knowledge of the text, which the editor acquires while proofreading and editing your text.

However, our Paper Formatting Service, Citation Editing Service and Plagiarism Checker can be purchased separately.

Can Scribbr check only part of my reference list when I purchase Citation Editing?

Yes, you are able to indicate which sources in your reference list you would like us to check.

Please highlight the sources that you would like to have checked in yellow in the reference list in your Word document. This way, we know which sources to check.

Do keep in mind that:

• We’ll only correct the sources that you ask us to check.
• We’ll improve the format of your reference list. We’ll modify the font type, font size, indentation and line spacing of the complete list. Additional formatting that depends on the type of source (e.g. italicizing titles) will only be improved for the selected sources.
• We will not check and correct the in-text citations. For us to properly correct the in-text citations, we need to crosscheck all sources in the reference list. Since we are not able to check all your sources, this is not possible.

Therefore, we recommend having your entire reference list checked.

More about Citation Editing

I made my reference list using referencing software. Can you check it?

We can only check an automatic reference list when it is created using Word’s references tool.

In case you have an automatic list created by a third-party software (such as Mendeley, Refworks, Zotero, and Endnote), we can only help you if we change your reference list to a non-automatic format. In this case, you will not be able to make further automatic corrections to your reference list or add in-text citations. However, we can provide you with more detailed feedback and make sure that your citations follow the rules of your reference style exactly as they should.

Note that in general we can better help you when we can convert your list to a non-automatic format.

Does Scribbr consider all reference styles?

We can check most reference styles, including university-specific style guides. For us to do this, you would need to upload the manual during the uploading process.

Unfortunately, due to their complexity, we cannot check law-based reference styles.

I am missing information in my reference list. Can Scribbr make sure all required information is present?

This will depend on the type of missing information. For example, a book reference always contains the author’s name, the title, the year of publication, and the publisher. If one of these crucial details is missing, your citation expert will research the information and add it wherever possible.

Your citation expert cannot, however, complete your reference list for you. Depending on the missing information, they may ask you to add it yourself. Your expert also cannot verify if the information you provided is correct, as they focus on applying the selected guidelines correctly and consistently.

I ordered Citation Editing. Can Scribbr change my references from one style to another?

No, unfortunately that’s not possible. Our citation experts will improve your current reference list and in-text citations, but they cannot create the citations for you.

We’ll ensure that your references meet your style guide requirements, improve the overall format, provide feedback on incomplete reference list entries, add missing details to in-text citations (based on the reference list) and crosscheck your in-text citations against your reference list to highlight any missing sources.