Citations
Add a real source by DOI or search, get the marker at your claim and the reference in the list, and switch the whole document between any of 10,000+ styles in one move.
The fastest way to catch AI-written work is the reference list. The prose reads fine, and then reference 4 is a paper that does not exist. Dock is built so that never happens to you. A citation here starts from a real record, a DOI, an indexed paper, a source already in your library, and the writing forms around evidence you can hand to a reviewer.
That is why citations are the reason many people write in Dock at all. You add a source, the marker lands at your claim, the reference flows into the list at the end, and because every source is stored as structured data, the whole document can change styles without you retyping a thing.
Put your cursor on the claim and press Cmd+Shift+C, or open citation search from the footer toolbar. Three doors:
- Paste a DOI and the exact reference arrives, authors and year and all.
- Search by title, author, or keyword across academic indexes.
- Pick from your library of sources you already saved.
Choose one and two things happen at once: the in-text marker drops at your cursor and the full reference joins the document. Citing is part of the sentence, not a cleanup job for the end.
Source search reaches across academic indexes, so the reference behind your claim is a record that exists. When someone follows it, and in graded or reviewed writing someone always does, it goes somewhere.
Different rooms, different rules. A psychology paper wants APA, a hospital wants AMA, an engineering venue wants brackets. The seven classics, APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, IEEE, AMA, and Vancouver, are one click away, and behind them sits the full CSL catalog: more than 10,000 styles, searchable by name, down to journal-specific ones like Nature and The Lancet. Whichever you pick, Dock applies that style's rules for markers and the reference list so you never format by hand.
A rejection letter usually comes with a style change attached. Sources do not change between styles, only the formatting does, so you switch the document once and every marker and every list entry reformats. The paper you resubmit is the same paper, dressed for a different room.
- Save sources once, reuse them everywhere, in the Citation Library.
- Already keep a library? Zotero and Mendeley import it.
- Let the Bibliography build the reference list while you write.