Our Citation Editing is a human editing service performed by one of our citation experts. The expert will check and correct all your in-text citations and reference list entries, and provide you with feedback on styling, inconsistency and missing entries based on your reference style. Our experts are qualified in all common citation styles including APA, MLA, Harvard, Chicago, and Vancouver, and can also apply university-specific guidelines.
For APA only, you can also opt for our AI-based APA Citation Checker. This tool spots mistakes in your citations and references, and points out what you still need to adjust.
Does the Citation Editing work for all reference styles?
Almost all, yes! Our experts are qualified in all common citation styles including APA, MLA, Harvard, Chicago, and Vancouver, and can also apply university-specific guidelines.
For us to check university-specific guidelines, please upload your reference manual during the uploading process and select “Other” as your reference style.
Unfortunately, due to their complexity, we cannot check law-based reference styles. You may find help in our knowledge base, for example, for the Oxford University Standard for the Citation of Legal Authorities (OSCOLA).
Can I request Citation Editing with specific guidelines from my university?
Yes. If your university requires you to apply specific guidelines, our citation experts can help you to use them consistently and in the correct format. For this, please select "own guidelines" and add your university manual during the upload process.
Some universities make use of common citation styles in their own specific format, for example a specific Harvard style. In that case, please select "own guidelines" and add your university manual during the upload process. This way, your citation experts will know to follow your specific Harvard guidelines. If you simply select "Harvard" as style, our citation experts will follow the default Harvard rules, which might differ slightly from your university's version.
Can Scribbr make sure all required information for my reference 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.
Can I choose between the 6th and 7th editions of APA style?
Both the APA Citation Checker as well as our human Citation Editing service support APA 6th and APA 7th edition. Please be mindful, however, that we cannot change the style for you; we will format the APA style that your reference entries come in.
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.
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.