Managing, Editing and Creating Citation Styles

Updated April 26, 2026 21:14

There are thousands of out-of-the-box citation styles, including styles from the open source Citation Style Language (CSL). All out-of-the-box styles can be edited to create custom styles. Custom styles can also be crated from scratch.

A style can contain multiple formats:

Bibliography Format – How the reference appears in a bibliography.
Citation Format – How the reference appears in an in-text citation.
Footnote Format – How the reference appears in a footnote citation.

Accessing Citation Style Editor (CSE)

Click on Citation Style Editor under Create Bibliography on the Reference and Tools Actions menu.

The styles on this page include All styles. Menu on left allows for viewing only My custom styles, Institutional styles and Citation Style Language (CSL) styles.

All styles - Every style available to user.
My custom styles - customized, personal styles; visible only to current user
Institutional styles - customized and shared by institutional Admin; visible only to users at institution
Citation Style Language (CSL) styles - styles ingested automatically via integration with the Citation Style Language project, a repository of citation styles used by reference management software.is a web-based tool that lets users create and modify citation styles in Citation Style Language (CSL).

Institutional Admins can define default styles for users and Share Personal Citation Styles as Institutional Styles.

Creating Custom Citation Styles

Copying from existing style

Click on New style... button.

In the modal, select checkbox to Copy settings from existing style. Search for and select a style. Type in unique name of the new style. Click Create.

Creating a custom style from scratch

Click on New style... button.

In the modal, deselect checkbox to Copy settings from existing style. Type in unique name of the new style. Click Create.

Customizing citation styles

Set preferences and rules for citation style(s). Edits to one reference type must be added to all reference type definitions in the style.

Rules for specific elements of a style are set in each editor area.

Bibliography

Setting rules for formatting bibliography.

Citations

Setting rules for formatting in-text citations.

Footnotes

Setting rules for formatting footnote citations.

Reference Type(s)

Displays all available Ref Types for which settings can be configured.

Language group

Create and set rules based on language.

A sample reference preview is displayed using the current format, reference type, and language. Changing rules for any element will be displayed dynamically in the preview.

Fields Formatting

This section allows formatting, adding, removing, and rearranging fields.

To rename the style: click on the style name and type in the name, or click on Options and click Rename.

Click + icon next to Reference type to select reference type(s) to edit. Select multiple types using Ctrl or control.

When starting from a blank style at least one reference type must be added. To configure a reference type from scratch, select Start with an empty reference type.

To copy the design of an existing reference type, select Copy settings from existing reference type and select the type from the drop down list. The formatting of this reference type will apply to all selected types. For example if the Author field is set to Bold, the corresponding fields in these types will be Bold as well.

To edit Reference Types, select the format, reference type, and language to be edited.

To delete Reference Type(s) select the reference type in list and click on trash icon. Click restore to undo delete.

In the fields bar, drag and drop the fields to change order.

Click + icon on right to add a field or type in text to add a new field name.

To remove a field, click on a field tile and click X to remove the field.

Selecting a filed tile automatically expands formatting pane below to edit elements.

Formatting pane

In the formatting pane, edit the citation in the selected format (Bibliography, Citations, Footnotes). The formatting pane changes depending on the selected format, e.g., if Bibliography is selected then the Bibliography Settings window displays.

Click the + icon next to name to expand the Settings window.

Adding line breaks (carriage return) in a citation style

The Citation Style Editor line breaks are added manually to a citation style, using the line break HTML code </br> following the field after which the line break.

For any text parameter, use \t to indicate a tab and \n to indicate a new line.

Citations Settings

Footnotes Settings

To add a language, enter the language to add. Select whether to start with a blank configuration or copy another language (recommended). Click Add. The type of language is added to the relevant pane.

To delete a language, select the settings icon and click Delete.

A citation style must have a definition for at least one format in the Generic reference type and the default language.

If editing an existing style, click Save a Copy to save changes as a new custom (personal) style. If editing a custom style, click Save to save changes.

Click on Options and click Revert to original to revert to original style when editing a personal citation style that was a duplicate of another style.

Click Yes in modal.

Deleting Custom Citation Styles

Out-of-the-box styles cannot be deleted.

Click Options and click Delete to delete custom (personal) style.