FAQ#
Frequently Asked Questions#
Is OokCite free?#
Yes. The free tier gives you 60 lookups per day with all 2900+ citation styles, batch formatting, in-text citations, and BibTeX export. Manual entry is always unlimited.
Why do some references resolve to the wrong paper?#
Reverse lookup combines exact identifiers, local full-corpus retrieval, and bounded provider fallbacks, then ranks candidates by bibliographic fit. Classic textbooks without a stable identifier can still match a review or a similarly titled work. For books, use ISBN lookup when possible. For papers, include the author, year, title, journal, volume, and pages you have.
Why “OokCite”?#
“Ook!” is the word most associated with the Librarian of Unseen University in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels. He is an orangutan who runs the library with supreme efficiency. We thought that was fitting for a citation tool.
Do I need an account to use collections?#
No. Your browser can keep a local collection without signing in. A signed-in Free account can store 4 server collections; Academic supports 10 and Business supports 20. Signed-in plans include sharing, tags, batch add, and import.
Is my data private?#
The formatting endpoint renders the citation entries you submit and records an aggregate formatted-entry count; it does not save the rendered bibliography. Lookup metadata can be cached and added to OokCite’s citation corpus. When usage metering or optional query capture is enabled, lookup identifiers or query text can also be recorded for billing and service improvement. Signed-in collection data is stored in object storage under the account’s namespace.
The site loads TurtleTech’s self-hosted Antics analytics script. OokCite does not set a separate analytics cookie, but it does use functional cookies for sign-in and browser storage for settings and local collections.
What are Better BibTeX keys?#
When you export BibTeX from OokCite, citation keys follow the Better BibTeX pattern: first author’s last name + short title + year. For example, goswamiTwodimensionalRmsd2026 instead of a DOI-based ID. This makes BibTeX files human-readable and consistent with the Zotero Better BibTeX plugin.
Can I use OokCite in my own application?#
Yes. The MCP server allows compatible clients to call OokCite tools. The REST API is also available. See the API Reference and MCP setup documentation.
What citation processor does OokCite use?#
Hayagriva, a pure Rust CSL processor from the Typst ecosystem. It processes the full CSL 1.0.2 specification.
Who makes OokCite?#
TurtleTech ehf., an Icelandic infrastructure company. We also make Snapper (semantic line breaks) and Zotero group storage.