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CiteSwap

In-text citation checker

Make sure every citation in your essay matches your reference list, and every reference is cited. Private: nothing is uploaded.

Checked in your browser. Your text is never uploaded.

Why your citations and reference list must match

Every source you cite in the text needs a full entry in the reference list, and every entry in the list must be cited somewhere. Supervisors and markers check this, and mismatches are one of the most common reasons students lose marks for referencing, especially after editing a long dissertation, when citations get added, removed or updated in one place but not the other.

How to use it

  1. Paste the text of your essay, chapter or article (with its citations) into the first box.
  2. Paste your reference list into the second box.
  3. Press Check citations and fix anything listed in red or orange.

Tips

  • If an author is reported missing, check the spelling of the surname in both places.
  • For two works by the same author in the same year, add a and b in both the text and the list: (Okafor, 2021a).
  • For secondary citations (“Achebe, 1958, as cited in Okafor, 2021”), only the source you read (Okafor) needs a reference.

In-text citation checker: frequently asked questions

What does the in-text citation checker look for?

Three problems markers look for:

  • Citations in your text with no matching entry in the reference list, for example (Okafor, 2021) when no Okafor is listed.
  • Citations whose year doesn’t match the list, for example Achebe (1960) when the list says 1958.
  • References in the list that are never cited in the text.
Which citation styles does it support?

Author–date styles such as APA, Harvard, Chicago author-date, ASA and APSA, where citations look like (Okafor & Bello, 2021) or Okafor and Bello (2021); and numbered styles such as IEEE, Vancouver and AMA, where citations look like [1] or [2, 5]. It picks the system your essay uses automatically. Footnote styles (Chicago notes, OSCOLA, Turabian) aren’t supported, because footnotes don’t survive copy and paste as text.

Is my essay uploaded anywhere?

No. The check runs entirely in your browser. Your text and references never leave your computer.

How does it handle “et al.”, organisations and 2021a/2021b?

Citations are matched on the first author’s surname and the year. “Okafor et al. (2021)” matches the reference whose first author is Okafor; organisations match on their name or acronym, so (WHO, 2023) matches World Health Organization; and 2021a and 2021b are told apart when your list uses the letters.

Does it check that the references themselves are real?

No, this tool only checks that your text and your list agree. To check that each reference exists and its details are right, use the citation checker.