One of the final steps in polishing a paper is checking references and in-text citations for accuracy. Most authors must perform this tedious and often time-consuming task manually. Little wonder, then, that some editors and proofreaders specialize particularly in reference checking.
Fortunately for researchers working with either APA or Harvard referencing styles, there is now some technological assistance available. Recite is a program that compares your in-text citations to your Reference list for consistency. It searches the citations within your manuscript and then checks the References section for corresponding titles. The dates within your manuscript are then color-coded: green for matching citations and references; yellow for a possible but uncertain match between a citation and a reference; and red for no match between a citation and references.
Pros
This is one of the very first tools that I have come across that is specifically designed to help researchers manage their citations at the end of the writing process rather than at the beginning. By now, there are a plethora of tools available to assist authors in gathering and organizing references during the research and writing phases. Recite, however, appears to be possibly the only tool available for the editing and clean-up phases at the end of a project. For authors who work with either APA or Harvard reference tools, Recite has the potential to significantly cut down the drudgery of reference checking at the end of any project.
Furthermore, the color coding mechanism of the Recite software makes it easy to spot problems other than faulty references. The yellow color coding, in particular, may alert authors to possible typos in their in-text citations. Hopefully, your copy editor has had an eye out for these issues, but Recite provides an extra set of digital “eyes” focused solely on your citations and references.
The results of the Recite tool are also presented in several different ways, which is useful to authors on a number of levels. The already mentioned color-coding appears in the annotated article results, which allows easy skimming for errors. Recite also provides authors with a sequential list of all cross-referenced citations, as well as an annotated reference list. This allows authors either to explore a bird’s eye view of their in-text citations, or to focus specifically on any errors that may appear in their reference lists. Any author coming to the end of a long research project can attest to the presence of irrelevant references from earlier in the project. Recite allows writers to identify and remove any such clutter from their references.
Cons
The first and most obvious downside to this program is its lack of compatibility with the Chicago Manual of Style. The website’s front page states that Recite is “optimised for those who use APA or Harvard referencing styles.” While the language of optimization holds out hope for CMOS users, it is a false one–at least for now.
While offered for free during the beta stages, Recite does now charge money for their product. Nevertheless, they do offer a variety of pricing options, including a free trial-level subscription. They also provide several reasonable, one-off and single-month trial options. Recite makes short-term or temporary access relatively easy–even for those on a budget.
Final Verdict
For researchers with a large number of references and citations to check, Recite offers a lot of promise. As one of the first tools of its kind on the market, it is a solution certainly worth investigating. The flexibility of its pricing options also make it a relatively low-risk proposition. For researchers working with either Harvard or APA, Recite has much to recommend it.
The major drawback at this time is the limited number of style guides that Recite addresses. Hopefully, the success of tools like Recite will spur the development of similar tools that cater to CMOS, AMA, and other style guides.
