Citavi Citation Generator

Aptly named Citavi, is a citation generator that helps authors collaborate on papers as well as manage their references all in the same space. You may use Citavi for free or you may get a license. If you are working with less than 100 references then you are safe and do not have to spend on a license. Citavi is a desktop app and also comes with a plugin that captures metadata from sites you would like to cite through its picker extension. Therefore, the very first step of working with Citavi will be installation.

How to install the Citavi citation generator

• Go to www.citavi.com/download.
• Download the setup by double-clicking on Citavi6Setup.exe.
• Pop-up windows will appear, to assist you in the installation.
• When ‘Citavi was successfully installed’ appears, you are ready to go.
• After this, you can register your account and start using your citation generator

After you have installed the desktop app, you will have to activate the plugin that helps the citation generator to capture information from websites manually, therefore, do the following:

1. Open Google Chrome.
2. On the browser toolbar, right-click the Menu icon Chrome Settings.
3. Click New extension added (Citavi Picker).
4. If the message New extension added doesn’t appear, on the Chrome menu click Settings > Extensions. Next to Citavi Picker select the Enable checkbox.
5. Then, click Enable the extension.

Note: the manual activation is different for all browsers, simply find out how to activate extensions on your browser and do that.

Working on Citavi

You have three options for using Citavi as your citation generator of choice. If you are writing the paper on your own or with a few people, you may create a local project. If you are working with a large group of people then you should consider a cloud project or a server project if the group does not wish to save on the cloud.

How to add references manually

1. Click on ‘+reference’
2. Choose reference type
3. Enter bibliographic information

Note: separate names of authors by semicolons just like in the Microsoft Word citation generator.

You may also add sources by the IDs like the ISBN or the DOI. In this case, you should do the following:

1. Click on ISBN, DOI, other id’
2. Enter the identifier in the space provided
3. Click on ‘add to list’ then proceed to click on ‘add t project’.

How to add references using the picker

1. On the web page you wish to save, right-click on it.
2. Click ‘Citavi Picker’ then ‘Add web page as reference’.
3. The reference will be added to your current project as an Internet document.
4. From here, you can add any missing citation information.
5. Save the web page as a PDF file. This comes in handy in case the web page disappears from your browser

How to use Citavi as a citation generator

• Open a Word document and click on the Citavi tab from the menu bar.
• On the left side, click on ‘Citavi pane’.
• You will then be prompted to assign a project to your Word document.
• A pop-up window will appear from where you will assign.
• Choose your preferred citation style before assigning a project.
• Once you select your project, the categories you created when saving sources and quotations will appear.
• Use these categories as headings for your paper. To do this, right-click on the category and select ‘Insert as heading’.
• From here, you have options on which categories to use as headings, for example, knowledge items, core statements, or all categories.
• Citavi will then insert the outlines in the editor. You can choose your outline layout.

From here, you are ready to start writing…

On the left, you will see four toolbars to assist you during writing. These are ‘References’, ‘Knowledge’, ‘Chapters’, and ‘Citations’. The Chapters option allows you to only view quotations for the chapter you are currently writing.

• To insert citations, quotations, or images on your paper, double-click on them.
• To insert multiple citations at once, use the control key and select all references. Right-click and select the ‘Insert’ option.
• Use the ‘Insert advanced’ tool to customize your references.
• Citavi creates a reference list at the end of your paper. You can also change your citation style and the reference list will adjust automatically.

How to add quotations on Citavi

1. Select the text and right-click on it.
2. Choose the ‘Add as quotation’ option.
3. Enter the page number if it does not appear.
4. State the main context of the quotation in the core statement field. This helps you when adding references.
5. Insert quotation marks.
6. If you already know where to place the quote, assign it a category before saving it.

Or, you may add a quotation manually by:

1. Selecting the source,
2. Then going to the page from which you want the quotation.
3. Select ‘Quotations and comments’ from the toolbar.
4. Click on ‘New’ and choose ‘Direct quotation’.
5. Type in your quotation and add the page number.