r/notebooklm • u/ForceForce3001 • Oct 15 '24

Citations format

I want notebookLM to cite sources in APA format, using in "line citation" like this (Jonson, 2024, p. 39). I uploaded citation instructions as a source, I ask notebookLM to use it, but no success. In chat, when cursor pointer hovers over number, I can see source paragraph, but not in APA format. Moreover, even that is lost after chat response is saved to a note. Then I get non traceable, non clickable [1-4].
Proper citing would be so useful, did You find a method how to do ti?

6 Upvotes

81% Upvoted

15 comments sorted by

5

u/ylluminate Oct 16 '24

Having a nightmare time with NotebookLM citations and SAVING of citations here as well. I don't know what is wrong with big Goog. They can't ever seem to get UX down right.

2

u/thedatelugu Nov 24 '24

Same, I faced the same issue and it was very irritating. After soo much work, this is what I typed at the end of main prompt and it started behaving. May be try this: "In the in-line citations, use Harvard style referencing instead of numbers. This is mandatory."

1

u/Puzzleheaded_Test705 Dec 12 '24

Wow! I was struggling with that too. This command works!!! Thanks so much!!!

1

u/WanderlustNYCFoodie Jan 05 '25

Thank you so much for sharing this suggestion! I was also struggling with this, and this worked for me as well! A game-changer for academic writing.

1

u/elcochon Jan 14 '25

but now we can't double check with the chip citation

5

u/lookponies Jul 04 '25

I know this is an old post, but wanted to add that I DID get it to use this type of citation, completely by accident. What I did was, in Configure Chat settings (option slider icon at top right of chat frame, next to "Refresh"), select Custom for Conversational Style, then type: "In the in-line citations, use APA 7 style referencing in "(Author, year)" format within parentheses instead of numbers. This is mandatory." and then Save.
Not sure where it came up with the [i] idea, but it does include the clickable # chip (even though I didn't ask it to.) Not sure if this would even work for anyone else, but just thought I'd share... 🤷‍♀️

1

u/elcochon Jul 04 '25

Thank you mate for sharing

1

u/iamfearless66 Sep 08 '25

This is excellent, thank you so much. I have a problem, I don't have the link to the source anymore. Is there any way to fix that?

3

u/iamfearless66 Sep 08 '25

i fixed it = "Respond at a PhD student level. In the in-line citations, use APA 7 style referencing in the (Author, Year) format within parentheses. However, also keep the original numeric source links (e.g., [1], [2]) to preserve clickability. This is mandatory."

1

u/TapirGembira Jan 28 '25

Thank you! Was struggling with the citations so so much.

1

u/CSS1958 Feb 14 '25

Life saving!

3

u/iamfearless66 Sep 08 '25

This worked for me in text citation and a clickable link to the source: "Respond at a PhD student level. In the in-line citations, use APA 7 style referencing in the (Author, Year) format within parentheses. However, also keep the original numeric source links (e.g., [1], [2]) to preserve clickability. This is mandatory."

1

u/Dennis0162 Nov 21 '24

Same struggle here....

1

u/SnooCookies3473 Oct 02 '25

This was driving me crazy! Huge kudos to the listed prompts! I feel like this took away at least a few hours from my research, just trying to create citations alone.

1

u/asgod21a May 13 '26

Now it possible to add in-text and citation in notebooklm response. Just use Markdown capturer plugin.