CiteMe - Academic Citations
danielnichiata9646 downloadsSearch and insert formatted academic citations from 11+ databases. 43 citation styles with quota-aware feedback and free/Pro support.
- Overview
- Scorecard
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Search and format academic citations from CiteMe directly in Obsidian, with quota-aware feedback and clear free/Pro style handling.
Features
- Instant search - Search millions of academic papers without leaving Obsidian
- Tier-aware citation styles - Free styles are available immediately and Pro styles are clearly marked
- Smart insertion - Insert in-text citations, full bibliography entries, or both
- References management - Automatically builds and maintains a References section in your notes
- Duplicate detection - Prevents adding the same citation twice (checks by DOI and text)
- DOI lookup - Search directly by DOI for precise results
- Quota visibility - Shows current CiteMe usage in the Obsidian status bar
- Mobile compatible - Works on both desktop and mobile Obsidian
Screenshots
Coming soon — screenshots will be added in a future release.
Installation
Manual Installation
- Download
main.js,manifest.json, andstyles.cssfrom the latest release - Create a folder
citemeinside your vault's.obsidian/plugins/directory - Copy the downloaded files into the
citemefolder - Restart Obsidian and enable the plugin in Settings > Community Plugins
From Source
cd obsidian-citeme
npm install
npm run build
Copy main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css to your vault at .obsidian/plugins/citeme/.
Usage
Search Citations
- Command palette: Open command palette (Cmd/Ctrl+P) and type "Search citations"
- Ribbon icon: Click the book icon in the left sidebar
- Right-click menu: Select text, right-click, and choose "Search citation for selected text"
Insert Modes
| Mode | What it inserts |
|---|---|
| Bibliography | Full formatted citation at cursor position |
| In-text | Parenthetical citation, e.g., (Vaswani et al., 2017) |
| Narrative | Narrative citation, e.g., Vaswani et al. (2017) |
| Both | In-text at cursor + full citation in References section |
Access Tiers
- Anonymous / Free: 20 citations per month and 10 citation styles
- Pro styles: Marked as
(Pro)in settings and require CiteMe Pro - Quota reached: The plugin shows an actionable notice linking to CiteMe
DOI Lookup
Use "Search by DOI" from the command palette to find a paper by its DOI. This opens a detail view with all formatted citation variants before inserting.
References Section
When enabled (default), the plugin automatically:
- Finds or creates a
## Referencesheading in your note - Appends full bibliography entries alphabetically
- Skips duplicates (matched by DOI or exact text)
Settings
| Setting | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
| CiteMe account | Link | Opens citeme.app to sign in or upgrade |
| Citation style | APA | Default citation format |
| Results limit | 5 | Number of search results (1-20) |
| Insert format | Bibliography | How citations are inserted |
| Sort by | Relevance | Result sorting order |
| Add to References | On | Auto-append to References section |
| References heading | ## References |
Heading text for the references section |
Supported Citation Styles
Free styles: APA, MLA, ABNT, Chicago (Author-Date), Chicago (Note), IEEE, Harvard, Vancouver, AMA, ACS
Pro styles (33 additional): ABNT Numeric, Turabian, ASA, Bluebook, CSE, OSCOLA, MHRA, BMJ, Elsevier Harvard, SAGE Harvard, Taylor & Francis, Cambridge UP, Royal Society, DIN 1505, ISO 690 (German/French/Spanish/International), Nature, PLOS, Science, Cell, The Lancet, AIP, RSC, APSA, AAA, NP 405, Harvard (UCT/AGPS), AGLC4, Vancouver (Author-Date), McGill Guide
Pro styles are marked with (Pro) in the settings dropdown and require a CiteMe Pro subscription.
Network & Privacy Disclosure
This plugin connects to the CiteMe API (https://citeme.app) to search academic databases and format citations. Requests are tagged with X-Source: obsidian-plugin for channel attribution. Anonymous access is available without an account. See CiteMe's privacy policy at https://citeme.app/privacy.
Development
git clone https://github.com/danielnichiata96/obsidian-citeme.git
cd obsidian-citeme
npm install
npm run sync:saas-contract # Optional: refresh SaaS parity snapshot when ../citeme exists
npm run dev # Watch mode (rebuilds on file change)
npm run build # Production build
Links
- CiteMe - The citation search engine powering this plugin
- Obsidian - A powerful knowledge base on top of a local folder of plain text Markdown files
License
MIT