Format Your First Citation#

Format Your First Citation#

In this tutorial you will look up a paper by its DOI and get a properly formatted citation you can paste into your document.

What You Need#

  • A web browser

  • A DOI (we will use 10.1038/187493a0 – Maiman’s 1960 laser paper)

Steps#

1. Open the App#

Go to ookcite.turtletech.us/app.

You will see the OokCite interface with three tabs: Identifier, Paste, and Manual.

../_images/app-home.png

2. Choose a Style#

The style picker is at the top. By default it is set to APA 7th Edition. Click the dropdown to choose a different style if needed.

If you are unsure which style to use, check your journal’s author guidelines. Common choices:

  • Humanities: Chicago or MLA

  • Sciences: APA or Nature

  • Engineering: IEEE

  • Medicine: Vancouver or AMA

3. Enter the DOI#

The Identifier tab is already selected. Type or paste the DOI into the input field:

10.1038/187493a0

Click Look up or press Enter.

4. Copy the Result#

After a moment, you will see two things:

  • An in-text citation badge: (Maiman, 1960) for APA

  • The full bibliography entry below it

You have four copy options:

  • Copy text: plain text for pasting anywhere

  • Copy formatted: rich text that preserves italics (for Word or Google Docs)

  • BibTeX: for LaTeX users

  • Edit: switch to manual entry to correct any details

5. Try a Different Style#

Change the style dropdown to IEEE. The citation re-formats instantly:

  • In-text changes to [1]

  • Bibliography entry changes to IEEE format with volume, pages, month

No additional lookup is consumed – re-formatting is always free.

What You Learned#

  • How to look up a citation by DOI

  • How to choose a citation style

  • How to copy the formatted result

  • That re-formatting is free (no rate limit consumed)

Next Steps#