=== Cite This Article – Author Box & Citation ===
Contributors: writerspress
Tags: author box, multiple authors, guest author, citation, cite
Requires at least: 6.0
Tested up to: 7.1
Requires PHP: 7.4
Stable tag: 2.3.2
License: GPLv2 or later
License URI: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html

Author boxes for multiple and guest authors, plus article citations and citation metadata that make your published work easier to cite.

== Description ==

[Documentation](https://citekit.com/docs/author-box-citation/) | [Live Demo](https://citekit.com/author-box-citation-for-wordpress/demo/) | [Shortcodes & Blocks Reference](https://citekit.com/wordpress-shortcode-reference-sheet/) | [Changelog](https://citekit.com/changelog/author-box-citation/) | [Support](https://citekit.com/support/)

Cite This Article helps web publishers make their articles easier to identify, credit, cite and save. It adds author information, reader-facing article citations and citation-aware metadata directly to WordPress posts.

Use it for single-author, multi-author or guest-author publishing, or add the Cite This Article panel on its own when your site already has an author presentation.

**Use it in three ways:**

* **Author box only** — publish author names, bios, images, and multiple- or guest-author information without displaying an article citation.
* **Author box + Cite This Article** — combine author information with a reader-facing article citation.
* **Citation only** — publish the article citation on its own when your site already has its own author presentation.

Cite This Article also publishes the article information that citation tools need to recognise the work correctly. Title, authors, publication date, publisher or site name and canonical URL can be exposed through citation-aware metadata, so reference managers and other tools do not have to reconstruct the article from a bare page title and URL.

Build author boxes for single- or multiple-author posts, add guest authors without creating WordPress accounts, use local images from the WordPress Media Library, or automatically resolve authors and guest authors from Co-Authors Plus.

Authors can appear together in one combined author box or in individual author cards, with their own bios and images where available.

Each author box can include a **Cite This Article** panel where readers can copy a formatted article citation or export the article to their reference manager.

== Author Box ==

Cite This Article builds an **author bio box** from WordPress author profiles, with native support for **multiple authors** rather than requiring a particular multi-author plugin.

Multiple authors can come from manual entry, a supported author integration, or the standard WordPress post author. Manual authors can also be used as **guest authors** when you need to credit a contributor without creating a WordPress user account.

Authors can be displayed together in one combined author box or as separate individual author cards. Individual cards can use each author's own avatar and biography, while one shared citation continues to represent the complete article and all of its authors.

Author-box presentation remains separate from the author data used to generate the article citation, so changing a bio or display setting does not replace the citation author list.

= Author Box Features =

* [Native multiple-author support](https://citekit.com/docs/author-box-citation/multiple-authors/) — no multi-author plugin required
* [Guest authors without WordPress accounts](https://citekit.com/docs/author-box-citation/multiple-authors/)
* [Combined author box or individual author cards](https://citekit.com/docs/author-box-citation/multiple-authors/)
* Automatic use of WordPress author profiles and bios
* Automatic Co-Authors Plus author and guest-author support
* WordPress profile avatars and local images from the Media Library
* Per-author bio and description overrides
* [Flexible layouts, image modes, avatar shapes and sizes](https://citekit.com/docs/author-box-citation/layout-styling/)
* “More from …” links to each author’s other posts, including Co-Authors Plus guest authors
* Lightweight front-end output with no external framework dependency

== Article Citations & Citability ==

The reader-facing **Cite This Article** panel turns the finished WordPress article into something readers can identify, cite, and save more reliably. It generates a citation for the current article covering all resolved authors and remains shared when those authors are displayed as separate individual cards.

Readers can copy the citation in one click or export it as BibTeX, RIS, or CSL-JSON for their reference manager. Citations can render in house, APA, MLA, Chicago, or Harvard style, with an optional reader-facing style switcher.

Posts and pages can expose citation-aware metadata including Highwire citation tags, Dublin Core fields, author metadata and publication dates. This gives reference managers and citation tools a better chance of identifying the article's author, title, date, publisher and URL correctly, instead of falling back to a bare page title and link.

Every post and page also has a **Citation details** panel in the editor sidebar, where you set the author or authors, whether they are a person or an organization, the title, the publication date — or no date at all — and the site name, with a preview of the citation a reader will copy. Those values drive the citation box, the citation metadata and the author schema together, so the three can never describe the same page differently.

Pages start out cited as the site, as an organization, with no date, because the date WordPress records for a page is when someone created the draft rather than when the work was published. Posts keep their real author and publication date. Any page can say otherwise in its own panel.

= Article Citation Features =

* Ready-to-copy article citations
* Per-page Citation details: author, author type, title, date or “no date”, and site name
* House, APA, MLA, Chicago and Harvard styles
* Optional reader-facing style switcher
* BibTeX, RIS and CSL-JSON export
* Citation-aware page metadata
* Multi-author article citations
* Organisational-author support
* Citation-only mode for sites with an existing author box
* Overrides for article authors, title, URL, publication date and publisher or site name
* Gutenberg support

== Author Schema ==

Cite This Article can describe each article's authors in schema.org structured data, using the same authors the author box shows: multiple authors, guest authors, and organizations included.

It's on by default, for the same content types as the citation metadata, so each article publishes its author, date and publisher as structured data as well as meta tags. Untick "Enable author schema" in the settings and nothing is added.

== Author Archive Pages ==

Author archive pages can open with the author's profile: photo, bio, website, and number of posts. Tick "Show the author profile in the author archive header" in the settings. The "Author: Name" heading becomes the author's name, and the profile sits beneath it. Your theme's post list, pagination, and layout are left as they are.

It works with block themes and classic themes, and with Co-Authors Plus guest-author archives. The archive version never includes a citation, since an archive is a changing list of posts rather than a single article.

To place the profile yourself, use the **Author Archive Header** block in your author template, or call `citekit_abc_author_archive_header()` in a classic theme's author.php. A page never shows more than one profile header. Themes that place it themselves can declare `add_theme_support( 'citekit-author-archive' )` to turn the automatic placement off.

== Integrations ==

= Co-Authors Plus =

Co-Authors Plus is supported automatically.

When Co-Authors Plus is active, Cite This Article can use all authors assigned to the post, including guest authors, guest-author avatars, and guest-author descriptions. Authors can appear together or as individual cards, and every resolved author is included in the article citation.

If Co-Authors Plus is not installed, Cite This Article continues to work with its native multiple-author and guest-author handling and the standard WordPress author system.

Reference Manager handles the sources your article cites. Cite This Article handles the article itself as a source — its authors, title, publication date, publisher, citation formats and citation metadata.

== External Services ==

Cite This Article builds author boxes, citations and citation metadata from what is already in your WordPress install. It does not send your posts, your authors or your visitors' data anywhere, and it makes no requests from the front end of your site.

**Freemius** — the plugin's licensing and update service. It is contacted from the WordPress admin for licence checks and plugin updates, and, if you open the Upgrade screen and choose to buy, to load the checkout at `checkout.freemius.com`. It also handles the optional opt-in when you activate the plugin; if you skip the opt-in, no account data is shared.
[Terms of service](https://freemius.com/terms/) · [Privacy policy](https://freemius.com/privacy/)

== Frequently Asked Questions ==

= What is an author box? =

An author box is a section of a WordPress post or article that identifies the person or people who wrote it. It commonly includes an author name, author bio, profile image, and other author information.

Cite This Article adds those author-box features while also providing an optional reader-facing article citation.

= Can I use it just as an author bio box? =

Yes. Cite This Article can be used as a WordPress author bio box with the author's name, biography, and profile image. The citation functionality is optional.

= Does Cite This Article support multiple authors? =

Yes. Multiple authors are supported natively and can be entered manually or resolved automatically from WordPress or a supported author integration.

= Can I add guest authors without creating WordPress accounts? =

Yes. Manual guest authors can be added without creating WordPress user accounts. Cite This Article also supports guest authors supplied by integrations such as Co-Authors Plus.

= Can I control how one particular page is cited? =

Yes. Open the page and use the **Citation details** panel in the editor sidebar. Set the author or authors, whether they are a person or an organization, the title, the date, or the site name — and leave anything you don't need to change empty. The panel shows the citation a reader will copy as you type. Posts and pages are covered by the free plugin; custom post types need the premium version.

= Why do my pages say n.d. instead of a date? =

Because the date WordPress stores for a page is when the draft was created, not when the work was published, and a citation that states the wrong date is worse than one that states none. So pages are cited as undated by default, which every citation style writes as *n.d.* If a page does have a publication date, untick **No date** in its Citation details panel and enter it.

= Can I use the citation without the author box? =

Yes. Cite This Article can publish the article citation on its own for sites that already have their own author presentation.

= Does it add author schema? =

Yes. Author schema is enabled by default for supported content types and can be turned off in settings. It lists every author of the article, with their author page, bio and website.

= Can the author box appear on author archive pages? =

Yes. Turn on "Show the author profile in the author archive header" and each author's archive page opens with their profile, without the citation. Your theme keeps its own post list and layout.

= Where can I find documentation? =

Start with the [Cite This Article documentation](https://citekit.com/docs/author-box-citation/). See [Multiple Authors](https://citekit.com/docs/author-box-citation/multiple-authors/) and [Layout & Styling](https://citekit.com/docs/author-box-citation/layout-styling/) for additional guidance.
