Citation changes for January 2023

For all new papers, starting January 3, 2023, the parentheses for a citation will be placed outside of the citation's content control – not inside the locked, content control box.

How citations work - the old way

All papers created with PERRLA prior to Jan. 3 will continue to use their original citation setup – they will not be changed.

This means that the citation content control (the blue/gray box around a citation) includes the parentheses inside the content control. While this allows PERRLA to ensure the citation is 100% correct, the content controls can cause frustration when trying to place your cursor beside them.

Users would have to use the right (or left) arrow keys to move the cursor outside the content control box so they could start typing again.

The new citation method

All papers created on Jan. 3, 2023 forward will use the new citation method demonstrated in the video above.

In the new method, the parentheses for a citation will be added as plain text outside of the citation content control.  The image below shows the difference between the two citation methods.

With the new citations, PERRLA still handles all of the things you'd expect:

• proper citation content
• editing existing references & citations
• handling merged citations correctly
• updating citations for first usage & subsequent usage
• deleting citations if its reference is removed from a paper

In addition to all of that, you also gain the ability to enter custom content inside the citation parentheses yourself. For example, you can add explanation text within the citation parentheses.

Example: "(e.g., false news about the extinction of Sasquatch; Smith, 2020)"
In this example, "Smith, 2020" would appear inside a content control box and would be handled by PERRLA. The "e.g., false....Sasquatch;" part can be added at the front or back part of the citation.

Just so we're clear...

The new citation method will ONLY be implemented for new papers created on or after January 3, 2023.

Papers created BEFORE January 3, 2023 will NOT be updated. They will continue to work the same way they always have - with the parentheses inside the content control box.

If you have any questions about the new citation method, feel free to email us at [e-mail]. We're more than happy to help!