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What’s App-ening: Cite sources in minutes with Easybib

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Easybib allows users to cite sources in minutes and can do almost any citation style. Photo credit: Leah Higginbotham

Welcome to What’s App-ening, your weekly source for the latest and greatest in mobile apps.

We’re now in the thick of the semester, and we all know what that means: a lot of essays to write in a finite amount of time.

This week’s app, Easybib, will help you meet those 11:59 p.m. deadlines without having to pull out your MLA style guide for every last citation.

Easybib is an app and online tool­ that automatically cites sources in moments.

You can manually enter the information about your source or select a citation that has previously been formatted from the app’s archives.

Both the app and the website are simple to use. Copy and paste the url for web sources into the search bar and the app will scan the article for the information necessary to create the citation.

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If Easybib cannot find all the information on a source, users will be prompted to fill in the gaps. Photo credit: Leah Higginbotham

If the app can’t find all the info, it will prompt you to manually fill in the gaps.

Once the information is there, the app generates a citation in the format you selected.

In addition to websites, Easybib allows users to cite journals, books, films and other sources.

A word of caution would be to double check that citations contain all necessary information for the selected style and adhere to the most up-to-date editions the style guides, especially if you are using Easybib’s archived citations.

Turning to the app itself, rather than its purpose, it’s user friendly and doesn’t spam you with ads every two minutes like many other free apps.

The layout is self-explanatory and easy to navigate with everything clearly labeled.

For iPhone users, many of the app’s interfaces mimic post-iOS 7 format changes.

Another important thing to note is that while the app and all of its features are free, the website has a paywall on most of the citation formats, which is why I would recommend the app over the website.

This app is a definite lifesaver for students who have a tendency to put off assignments until the last minute. While manually citing all your sources can take a good hour, Easybib does it in roughly ten minutes.

However, be warned that Easybib is an only a tool and can make mistakes. It is best to use the app only if you’re already familiar with the style and able to cite sources manually.

I give Easybib four out of five stars—minus one star because it still has occasional bugs. But, overall, it’s a useful resource for students.

Easybib is free on Google Play and the App Store.

Thanks for reading, Wildcats, and until next Friday, you know What’s App-ening.

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