Bibliography and citations

Connect a reference manager, or use a .bib file directly, to insert citations into LaTeX, Typst, MyST, and Word documents.

The References panel in the left sidebar connects to reference managers so you can browse your library and insert citations without leaving the editor. It works for LaTeX, Typst, and MyST files. Word documents use a separate citation picker in the DOCX toolbar instead.

Insert a citation

1

Open References

Open the References panel in the left sidebar.

2

Connect a source

Connect a reference manager (Zotero, Mendeley, or the ReadCube reference manager) if you haven't already, or set a .bib file as your source instead. Use Create new .bib file... if you don't have one yet.

3

Find the reference

Search or browse for the reference you want.

4

Insert it

Click Insert citation. Papers AI adds the citation key at your cursor and, if you're using a .bib file as the source, appends the entry to it.

For a Word document, use the Insert citation and Citation style controls in the DOCX toolbar instead of the References panel.

If you're not sure a reference is formatted correctly, ask the AI to check or clean up a .bib entry for you. See Using AI.

Remove a citation source

In a Word document, each source inside a multi-source citation has its own remove control in the citation popover. Open the popover, find the source you want to drop, and remove just that one. The citation renumbers automatically. Removing the last remaining source deletes the whole citation.

Citation style

Set a project-wide default from the Citation style picker in the References panel header. It covers LaTeX, Typst, and MyST citations and their preview rendering, with a bundled set of styles that now includes field-specific conventions like Vancouver, AMA, and NLM, alongside the usual APA/IEEE defaults.

Word

Word documents use their own separate Citation style control in the DOCX toolbar, independent of the References panel picker.

LaTeX

The project-wide style applies automatically. Override it in source with \bibliographystyle{...} if you need something the picker doesn't offer.

Typst / MyST

The project-wide style applies automatically to the preview and rendered output.

Things to know

• PubMed isn't a connected provider. Export your references as RIS or BibTeX from PubMed, then add the file as a .bib source.

• Citation insertion is disabled for file types that don't support citations, and for board files.

• A Word document's BIBLIOGRAPHY field becomes static text once it's round-tripped through Papers AI. Word can still manually refresh it from the document's sources, but it's no longer a live, auto-updating field.

Troubleshooting

Insert citation is unavailable

Check that the active file format supports citations.

No references appear

Reconnect your provider, or refresh the panel.

The wrong .bib file gets updated

Re-select your default .bib file in the References panel.

A citation appears unresolved

Confirm the key exists in your .bib file, then refresh.

Next steps

• Working with Word documents

• Using AI