This week saw the official release of a new citation generator, WorksCited4U.com. 

More strictly, it is a “bibliography composer.” It aims to provide a free service, and it has many exciting and potentially helpful features.

The features include

• a choice of formatted bibliographical references in MLA, APA, and Chicago,
• a quick parenthetical citation generator,
• ability to store references in different files for different projects,
• easy conversion of any reference list from one bibliographic style to another,
• automatic alphabeticisation of entries,
• export of entries in Word, or to printer, or by email,
• a set of quick reference guides in the various styles; the Chicago guide includes  example footnotes.

The generator works on the template principle: choose the citation style, choose the type of document you are referencing, complete a form which asks for the various elements of the reference, hit “Add this source” – and the reference is generated in the style of your choice.  Automatic generation is available for some types of source, where the user just needs to submit the name of an author or a title or an ISBN, and possible hits are suggested.

I won’t be too hard on this site. Not yet. It’s new, it seems well-intentioned, it already has 1382 FaceBook likes… Let’s just say, there is room for improvement.

Plenty of room.

The review

There has hardly been time to test it thoroughly, but in just a few sample entries I find:

• the MLA style is based on an out-dated edition of MLA, one which underlines titles and does not name the medium of the source;
• parenthetical citations are generated firstname lastname (along with some curious extra characters between the two names);
• when converting a reference list from one style to another, the titles and possibly other information are lost;
• the types of sources are limited;
• even when autocite finds the exact source (which it does not always do) and finds all authors, the full title, all the details you could possibly want, the reference generated when you hit “Select” produces a reference naming only the first author, shortens the title, omits the journal name, and makes other odd adjustments to what were the makings of a correct reference!

In detail

The MLA style is based on an out-dated edition of MLA, one which underlines titles and does not name the medium of the source.

Sample parenthetical citations are generated firstname lastname (along with some curious extra characters between the two names).

When converting a reference list from one style to another, the titles and possibly other information are lost.

The types of sources are limited; the screengrab (right) shows the sources available for APA referencing;

Even when autocite finds the exact source (which it does not always do) – in this case a PlosMed article The Costs and Underappreciated Consequences of Research Misconduct: A Case Study

and lists all the authors, the full title, all the details you could possibly want,

the reference generated when you hit “Select” produces a reference naming only the first author, shortens the title, omits the journal name, and makes other odd adjustments to what were the makings of a correct reference!

Verdict: back to the drawing-board, gentlemen!

(In the interests of fairness, I intend to carry out a comparison study of citation generators/ bibliography composers. Coming soon.)