Why choose Citation over Scribbr?
Choose Citation as your Scribbr alternative when you want to turn research into a finished paper. Write with your sources beside the draft, ask the AI Assistant to help develop a passage, and keep its citations connected as your argument takes shape.
Your next revision happens in the same document. Compare an AI suggestion with the original, keep the changes that work, and invite an editor to comment on the passages that need another perspective.
Start free with a blank page or a draft you have already begun. Citation gives you the writing workspace, source records, review tools, and complete paper exports to keep moving toward submission.
| Feature | Citation |  Scribbr |
|---|---|---|
| AI writing suggestions | Supported | Supported |
| Paraphrasing help | Supported | Supported |
| Similarity checks | Supported | Supported |
| Citations within your text | Supported | Supported |
| Bibliography export to Word | Supported | Supported |
| BibTeX export | Supported | Supported |
| Free citation generation | Supported | Supported |
| APA, MLA, Chicago and Harvard citations | Supported | Supported |
| URL, DOI, ISBN and title lookup | Supported | Supported |
Sources and styles
Bring a source into the draft by pasting its URL, DOI, or ISBN, searching by title, or entering its details yourself. Save the record, insert a connected citation where you use the evidence, and build the bibliography as you write.
Citation supports APA 7, MLA 9, both Chicago 18 systems, Cite Them Right Harvard 12, IEEE, Vancouver (NLM), AMA 11, and ACS. Change the document’s style to reformat its linked citations and bibliography together.
When you correct an author, date, or publication detail, its linked uses update within that document. Review the record against your source once, then continue developing the argument around it.
Writing and review
Ask Citation’s AI Assistant to clarify a paragraph, improve its structure, or help express a connection between your ideas and saved sources. The assistant works with the current draft so you can revise the passage where it belongs.
Keep your own judgment at the center of the process. Review proposed edits before applying them, invite editors to leave comments on selected passages, and resolve discussions as you work through the feedback. Version history lets you revisit an earlier saved draft.
Before sharing, use the web check to find matching passages and open their source links beside the paper. Use those results to improve quotation and attribution. Checks use accessible public web sources and do not cover private institutional repositories.
Imports and exports
Bring your existing Scribbr references along. Export them as BibTeX and import the file into a Citation document, then use the records to insert connected citations while you revise.
Import the draft as DOCX or TXT, or paste its text. Citation text already in the paper remains ordinary text until you connect it to saved sources. You can work through the document progressively without starting the writing again.
Finish the whole paper in Citation and download it as DOCX, PDF, or TXT. Export BibTeX or RIS when you also need the reference data. Your writing, review, and bibliography preparation all lead to a complete draft you can take into Word or share as a PDF.