Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Answers to some of our most popular questions

What exactly does Recite do?
It checks that the citations in the body of your work match up with the references at the end. It also checks for some stylistic errors in citations. Please see our Product Tour for a run through of the main features.
I don't think I have a Google account, how do I login/signup?
We use Google accounts for authentication, and to create a really simple profile when you login for the first time.

A Google account is NOT a Gmail account - any email address can be a Google account.

If you don't have one, you can make a Google account from any email address by visiting this link.
Do you offer a student rate?
As most of our users are students, we've priced Recite at a rate accessible to all - effectively everyone gets access at our student rate.

Also, many undergraduate essays will fall within our free tier limitations, so will be checked for free.
Do you offer discounted rates for institutions, organisations or other multi-user access?
Absolutely. If you're looking to purchase access for 10 or more users, contact us via email with an idea of how many users you require access for.
What referencing styles do you support?
Recite is designed around "author-date" systems. We currently support APA 7th Edition, APA 6th Edition and Harvard. Get in touch if you think we need to support something else.
Do you check that the quote I've used appears in the document I say it does?
No, not currently, we just check that your in-text citation matches up with a corresponding reference list entry and that your citations appear to be formatted correctly. We also don't check everything.
When Recite says I have no errors, is my work error free?
Realistically, no. Recite checks your paper against a growing number of rules, which enable us to highlight issues to you - we unfortunately do not check everything and therefore do not guarantee your work is error free. In particular, Recite is only checking within your document, and is therefore unable to check that what you've written is correct. When checking your reference list entries, we don't know what specifically you're referencing (journal article, book chapter etc.), so are unable to advise whether your formatting in this area is correct. We do however, point out common formatting issues with the author/date portion of references, as these are generally standard across different reference types. Our paid plans do include integration with Crossref which enables us to give further formatting advice where a match is found in their database.
My professor/supervisor says I need zero errors before they'll accept my work, what can I do?
We're grateful that your professor / supervisor has introduced you to Recite. We hope you find it useful for your work now and in the future. But, and whisper this, it seems they don't quite understand how Recite works. Please feel free to show them this FAQ to help explain: the direct link to this FAQ is: https://reciteworks.com/faq#no_errors_desired Recite is designed to highlight "possible" issues with your work. It is designed to be over cautious. We've always felt that throwing up false positives is much better than risking false negatives and missing genuine citations. Because of this Recite will, for example, deliberately throw up any four digit number that "looks like" a valid date as a possible reference. That doesn't mean you or Recite have done anything wrong, or that there is anything to correct: Recite is just doing its job: being over cautious. In these cases all you have to do is review these possible issues yourself, and if you are happy they aren't citations, you simply ignore them. The idea with Recite, is not to end up with zero issues. Instead you should aim to get to a point where you know why each remaining issue is being highlighted, and that you are happy it doesn't require any further action.
Recite used to automatically convert my document, but it says I have to pay now. What can I do?
Obviously, we'd love you to pay for our service, allowing us to make it even better, but we appreciate that not everyone can afford that. We suggest you head over to CloudConvert to convert your document before running it through Recite. We use CloudConvert ourselves, so we know how good their service is.
How do I download my results?
If you're on one of our paid plans you get a simple "Download PDF" link which automatically generates a PDF of your results.

If you're using our free tier, Recite automatically formats your results for printing, so using the "print to pdf" (or "Save to PDF") in your web browser is your best option (available on most modern systems). There's also a "Change Print Settings" link in the top bar on the results page, which allows you to tweak a few settings before "printing".
Recite says my work "... contained no detectable reference section", how do I fix this?
Make sure -
  1. Your document has a reference list
  2. That the list is headed correctly (for APA, it should be "References" - NOT "Reference List" or any other variant)
  3. That the heading is on a line on its own, with a clear line break before and after
  4. That you're uploading a complete document (not just a reference list on its own) - Recite compares your citations with your references, so does need the full document to work
I've uploaded my document in the template provided by my institution, but Recite isn't working properly, what's wrong?
If your institution provides a document template containing explanatory notes aside of your work, this will confuse Recite. Please only upload your written work, along with a single reference list (in one document).
My document has tracked changes, will Recite still work?
Yes, but it's best to accept any tracked changes before uploading. This will ensure Recite is "looking" at the correct version.
Recite appears to include things at the end of my reference list which aren't references, what's going on?
Recite is very good at detecting where your reference list starts and ends, but occasionally it makes a mistake. Inserting an extra carriage return (line break) after your last (real) reference entry usually fixes this.

Alternatively, if you click the 'Adjust' button for the last "real" entry in your list and add a couple of extra line breaks after that entry (separating it from entry non-reference content after it), you can then click 'Resubmit' to reload your results.
My results don't seem to make sense, Recite is telling me I've not referenced things when I clearly have, what's going on?
As above, Recite is very good at detecting where your reference list starts and ends, but occasionally it makes a mistake. Take a look at the Reference List that Recite has detected and see if it actually matches with your list. It's likely that Recite has "seen" something in your list that has made it stop prematurely and is therefore ignoring some of your references. Looking in your document around the area that Recite has stopped at, normally shows something fairly obvious that you need to amend.

If Recite appears to have appended an entry to another, or split one entry in to two, you can use the 'Adjust' button on that entry to correct it.

Also, as noted below - Recite only works on documents with a single reference list.
Recite has detected a reference list, but it's the wrong one, what's going on?
Recite can only work on documents with a single reference list. If you have more than one, either separate your document in to individual works with a corresponding reference list, or combine your references in to a single list.
Recite says I have alphabetical order issues in my reference list, how do I find out which ones are wrong?
Incorrectly ordered references have a little (up/down) arrow at the end of the reference line. The arrows then have a number next to them, which tells you how many places that entry needs moving. For more information on this, see getting your references in order.
Are you going to steal my work?
Absolutely not. Your work is precious to you and we appreciate this. We promise we will not share anything you upload with anyone else or use your work in anyway apart from helping us improve how Recite works. See our privacy page for more details.
Do you store my document on your servers?
Documents are never stored unencrypted and only exist in a readable format, while in-memory (a few seconds). All documents are securely archived within 36 hours (generally a lot less).
Will using Recite affect my scores in plagiarism checkers?
Plagiarism detection services like Turnitin, SafeAssign and Grammarly have no access to the documents (temporarily) stored on our web servers. Therefore, students need not worry that putting a document through our service will affect those scores. For more information on how plagiarism services work, Turnitin have a good blog post regarding misconceptions about their service.
I have a paid account, but I keep being told I'm on the free plan and I need to upgrade - what do I need to do?
As Recite uses Google accounts for authentication, and people often have more than one Google account, it's possible that you're logged in to the wrong account. Check your payment receipt to see which account you were using when you paid.

Google will often remember the last account you logged in to, so it's possible that you're logged in to a different account than you think you are. If you check your "my account" page, it will say which account you're currently using. To switch Google accounts, logout of Recite, then head over to google.com and also logout there. Then, when you login to Recite, you'll be asked to login to Google again and you can choose the correct account.

If you're sure you're logged in to the correct account, try logging out and back in again. If you're still having problems, please contact us.
I want to cancel my subscription, or update my card/billing details, how do I do that?
You should be able to do this via a link in the "My account" section on Recite.

If you login to Recite as normal, then click on your name in the top navigation, you'll see a page detailing your current subscription, minimal details we grab from your Google login and some other information. Towards the top, you'll see two buttons labelled "Cancel Subscription" and "Update Payment Information" which allow you to do just that. Note: these buttons are only displayed if you have an active (not cancelled) subscription.

We totally appreciate that users don't necessarily need access to Recite all of the time, so feel free to cancel and resubscribe as and when you need to.

Please bear in mind that cancelling doesn't prevent you from using any paid time left on your subscription.

If you can't work out how to do it, or would like us to do it for you, just get in touch.
Do you have a refund policy?
For individual consumer purchases:
If you're unhappy with your purchase for any reason, drop us an email at [email protected] and we'll refund you in full, no questions asked. All we ask is that you do this in a timely manner - within 24 hours for 3 day and monthly plans, and 30 days for annual subscriptions.

For institutional licenses and bulk purchases:
Please contact your account manager or sales representative.
Do many people use this service?
Every month, thousands of students, academics, researchers and proof-readers, use Recite to check documents and save a ton of manual checking. As of 1st January 2024, we've checked over 229,000,000 citations against more than 98,000,000 references.
I've spotted an error / there is something I don't like / I've got some feedback, how do I get in touch?
Fill out our feedback form or drop us an email or tweet us.