For students and researchers reference management probably is the most tiring task in their daily work-routine. They have to re-type and format bibliographic information again and again, for each paper, assignment or thesis. This is particularly annoying if you need to change citation styles. As a student this might happen because your supervisor changes his mind on his favorite citation style and researchers constantly need to adjust citation styles because almost every journal and conference has its own requirements (see picture). Some reference management tools, such as Endnote, offer Add-Ons for Microsoft Word for inserting and formation references directly within a Word document. However, users of reference management software relying on the BibTeX standard had no such add-ons (there only is BibTeX4Word which is a good tool but very difficult to use). Until now.
Today, just after we released the brand new Docear 1.0 Beta 6, we released Docear4Word 1.0. Docear4Word is an add-on for Microsoft Word (2003 and later) that allows you to insert references and bibliographies from BibTeX files to MS-Word documents. The great thing is that you don’t need to care about formatting. You can choose from 1,700+ citation styles (APA, MLA, Turabian, Harvard, IEEE, ACM, …).
IEEE Citation style vs. Elsevier’s Harvard Style
All you have to do is selecting a reference from your BibTeX database, and Docear4Word is doing the work. Docear4Word works with any BibTeX database, not only the one from Docear. That means you can use Docear4Word with almost any reference manager (JabRef, Bibdesk, Biblioscape, Bibus, Citavi, …). Docear4Word is totally free to use, open source (GPL 2 or later) and based on the Citation Style Language (CSL), the same one that Zotero, Mendeley and Papers are using. There is currently only one major feature that Docear4Word is not supporting and that is footnotes.
Features of Docear4Word
- More than 1,700 citation styles available (APA, MLA, Turabian, Harvard, IEEE, ACM, …)
- Runs with Microsoft Word 2003, 2007, 2010, and 2013 (32Bit and 64Bit)
- Runs with Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, … (32Bit and 64Bit)
- Comfortable search and filter function for entry selection
- Option to specify page numbers
- Full reference data is stored in the Word document (document remains usable without BibTeX file)
- Live update of bibliography when new reference is inserted (no refresh needed)
- Go through references (next/previous)
- Compatible with all BibTeX files
- Automatic selection of Docear’s currently active BibTeX file
- Based on the Citation Style Language (CSL), the same one that Zotero, Mendeley and Papers are using
- Send us your feature request
Install Docear4Word
- Download Docear4Word
- Run docar4word_setup.exe
- Follow the instructions (when you are using Windows XP you might be ask to install the .NET framework. Please do so)
- Questions? Problems? Contact us!
More Information and Docear4Word Homepage
For more information on Docear4Word (e.g. how to use it), visit the official homepage http://www.docear.org/software/add-ons/docear4word/overview/ (we would also prefer if you link the official homepage and not this blog post if you are writing about Docear4Word e.g. in your own Blog).
30 Comments
Mansha · 18th June 2017 at 17:46
Hi!I have been using Docear4word. Can you please tell me how do i put my citations in superscript and without the brackets? example ˢᵘᵖᵉʳˢᶜʳᶦᵖᵗ.
SG · 11th August 2015 at 14:39
Hello,
I am facing a problem with Docear4Word.
My bibliography is aligned to the left, of course I can manually justify it, but was wondering if there an automatic way to do this? Even when is justified if I change any of references it becomes left aligned again.
Thank you for your feedback!
SG
Am · 25th March 2015 at 10:04
Hi,
I’m trying to cite a website and insert the bibligraphy using IEEE style. However, the style it generated not as it suppose to be. The problem and BibTeX source is as shown below. Thank you
Generated bibligraphy
[1] WiTricity Corporation, “FAQs – WiTricity Corporation .” 2015
It supposed to be like this
[1] WiTricity Corporation, ‘FAQs – WiTricity Corporation’, 2015. [Online]. Available: http://witricity.com/technology/witricity-faqs/. [Accessed: 25- Mar- 2015].
BibTeX Source
@misc{1_witricity corporation_2015,
author={WiTricity Corporation,},
title={FAQs – WiTricity Corporation},
url={http://witricity.com/technology/witricity-faqs/},
year={2015},
howpublished = “url{http://witricity.com/technology/witricity-faqs/}”,
note = “[Online; accessed 25-Mar-20015]”
}
tobi · 23rd February 2015 at 14:44
At some point my bilbiography section disappeared and I cannot get it to reappear. Clicking insert bilbiography throws a “theres is already one, proceed anyway?” kind of message. Neither proceeding nor aborting gives me a bibliography. The issue is document specific, but I would prefer to not do the whole document again. All functionalities like adding and numbering refs is working nicely, just the bilbiography section is gone.
doing everything over again would be quite the pain as you can imagine.
august · 7th February 2015 at 21:53
Hi, I tried to find how to add page number to (author, year) as (author, year, page), but seems there is no concern about this. Does anyone can tell me how to do that? Cheers, August
Stefan · 9th May 2014 at 09:17
Hi Joeran,
I would like to write in German, describing the bug is much more easier.
Ein Beispiel anzufertigen dauert jetzt etwas zu lange, da ist erklären schneller 🙂 !
Angenommen ich füge eine Quelle (aus Bibtex, Verwaltung Jabref) als “Author only” ein. Wenn an der Cursorposition bereits vorher ein “Font-Effect” (Strikethrought, Small Caps, All Caps) gesetzt ist gesetzt, dann bekomme ich “creating citation…”. Das gleiche passiert auch bei einem normalen Zitat.
Ein Zitat mit Font-Effect kann ich auch nicht mit “Edit Reference” mehr bearbeiten , ich muss erst den Effekt entfernen.
Als Stil nehme ich “Harvard Reference format 1 (author-date)”
Best,
Stefan
Stefan · 7th May 2014 at 09:49
Hi. I want to provide some observations for the “creating citation…” message. This occures every time, I have pre-selected some MS Word style, which do not match the (pre-defined, JS based) style of the citation. For example, if I have pre-selected all caps (like MUELLER), and place some additional citation, I got the error. If I remove the style, edit the reference, the citation is updated right.
Joeran [Docear] · 8th May 2014 at 11:20
Hi Stefan,
I am sorry, but I cannot reproduce this error. Could you please send me an example Word and BibTeX file to help@docear.org and explain again in detail how to reproduce the problem? You can write in German if you like.
Joeran
Indranil · 15th March 2014 at 13:15
Hi Joeran,
I am sorry for this late reply. Yes, I am sending the style to the address suggested by you. It was downloaded from Zotero Style Respository and copied as such into the styles folder of Docear. In recent times, Docear is increasingly becoming important to my work and I really like to use it. Prompt help from your side also increases the user´s confidence in using Docear. Thanks again for your efforts. Please find the style file in help@docear.org.
Indranil · 21st January 2014 at 14:51
Hi,
I have written a long document using Doc4word and inserted about 290 citations. I want to use the CSL file for `Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences`in Word 2010. When I select the style from the dropdown menu in Doc4word the citations and the bibliography vanishes! However, when I select another style e.g., Vancouver, all the citations and bibliography are there! Please help me out. Thanks.
Joeran [Docear] · 22nd January 2014 at 17:37
could you please send me your style to help@docear.org?
Florian · 8th January 2014 at 14:42
Hi,
let me first thank you for your fantastic word, too! Very nice!
Regarding the “Creating Citation” bug: I can reproduce this bug. It occurs when one -> Required Field <- in my JabRef database is missing for the citation, e.g. pages.
You probably know that already, but maybe this information is of help for you…
Joeran [Docear] · 9th January 2014 at 12:45
Docear4Word should work even if e.g. no “pages” is provided. If a missing field like that causes Docear4Word to stop working, please send me an example BibTeX file to help @ docear. org.
Gaspar · 22nd October 2013 at 19:03
Hello,
Thank you so much for creating Docear4Word! Its an amazing tool.
I have been using it and it works perfectly.
However I recently tried to introduce a reference in a footnote, but the text does not update from Creating Citation. Is there a way that this can be solved?
Best,
Sérgio
Joeran [Docear] · 22nd October 2013 at 19:35
This is a bug, and we are aware of its existence. However, we could not yet fix it.
lili · 23rd September 2013 at 14:09
hi, I have a problem with citation in word 2010. I am using mendeley for citation. previously the references more than 2 were appeared like [4-12] but now after closing and re-openning the program they are like [1], [2], [3], …, [12]. I am using IEEE style. can you please help me solving this problem?
thank you in advance
Joeran [Docear] · 23rd September 2013 at 14:15
Hello,
are you using Mendeley or Docear for citation management? If you are using Mendeley, you should contact the Mendeley support team. If you are using Docear, please describe in more detail what you are doing and since when the problem occurs.
Best,
Joeran
Rui · 13th December 2012 at 01:37
Thanks Jorean, I got it working. My mistake was to assume that having .NET 4.5 by default, Windows 8 would not request any additional versions. I was wrong…
Cheers
Rui
Rui · 8th December 2012 at 00:33
I have been using Docear with Docear4Word in Windows 7 x64 and Office 2013 x64 with great sucess.
But now, I moved to Windows 8 x64 and Docear4Word won’t install and keeps asking for .Net 2.0
Any ideas?
Thank you
Joeran [Docear] · 10th December 2012 at 11:35
Hello,
apparently, you need to install .NET. You find information about Windows 8 and .NET here http://blogs.technet.com/b/askcore/archive/2012/05/14/windows-8-and-net-framework-3-5.aspx
Please let me know if this helps.
Best,
Joeran
Patrick O'Sullivan · 6th November 2012 at 21:28
I am a Docear4Word user who had problems getting it to work on Windows XP. But I said, Do not make sa fuss – for I need to move to a new computer anyway.
I am now using a new computer, Windows 7, Word 2010. I have used Docear4Word for the first time, to write an academic lecture, the keynote address for a conference. Docear4Word worked perfectly.
I think I like the fact that the 4 elements, the word processor, the bibliography standard (bibtex), the manager (in my case JabRef), and bibliography and citation management (Docear4Word) are still clearly separate. But you seem to have them working well together.
My thanks.
Patrick O’Sullivan
Jake · 11th October 2012 at 12:04
Hi Joeran!
Are you planning a similar plugin for LibreOffice/OpenOffice? Word is nice and all, but it’s not nicer than free and open-source. 🙂
Regards!
Steve · 4th October 2012 at 12:20
Hello,
I want to citate in 2 different way:
e.g:
It is known that see sun is yellow (God et al. 2000).
but also:
God et al. (2000) says, that the sun is yellow.
How can i do this with docear4word
Many thanks
Steve
Joeran [Docear] · 9th October 2012 at 14:52
This is not yet possible but it’s on our todo-list with a high priority https://sourceforge.net/apps/trac/docear/ticket/682
btw. you will get faster response if you post in our support forums http://www.docear.org/support/forums/
WangXiaofeng · 18th September 2012 at 14:01
I have send a mail with photos to show details
WangXiaofeng · 18th September 2012 at 13:55
sorry , I using IEEE-Margin CSL Style and Chinese Std GB/T 7714-2005 (numeric) CSL Style.
Joeran [Docear Team] · 18th September 2012 at 12:32
Hello, sorry but I cannot follow this example. Can you please provide a more simple example and that in more detail? Have you tried any other citation styles? e.g. “ACM SIG Proceedings With Long Author List” or IEEE?
WangXiaofeng · 18th September 2012 at 05:49
Hi Dear Guys, Thanks for this great tool, it’s so wonderful!
I have a problem with Docear4Word 1.0,but there is not this problem in Docear4Word beta1. When I insert serveral citations using ACM SIG Proceedings CSL Style from a bib file which has 6 items ,for example, 1st step I insert item1 item3 and item5,in Word2010 it appears [1-3],2nd step I insert item2 item4 and item6,in Word2010 it appears [4-6],3rd step I insert item1 item2 and item3,in Word2010 it appears [1][4][2],it should appeared [1][2][4].In Docear4Word beta1 it appears [1][2][4],so I think it’s a bug about sorting. I have a try to find what generates this problem by replacing Docear4Word 1.0 installing files by Docear4Word beta1, discover the problem is generated by the file “Docear4Word.dll”.
Hope you could give me a solution, thank you in advance:)
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