When you’re referencing something else, such as an outside source or another website, you have two options.

1. You can use a hyperlink.

2. You can use a footnote or citation.

Hyperlinks

If you’re referencing something that exists elsewhere online, and your essay is mostly informal, your best bet is to use a hyperlink. Here’s how:

1. First, copy the URL (web address) of the thing you’re linking to, such as this profile for fake contributor Bina Telcher: https://urbanafrica.pubpub.org/pub/bina-telcher/release/1

2. Highlight the text you want to become a clickable link. It’s best to use descriptive language rather than “click here.” For example, if you’re linking to the Bina Telcher profile, you might write “Bina Telcher, a contributor on the Urban Africa Project…” and the words “Bina Telcher” would be what you’d turn into a hyperlink.

3. With the relevant words highlighted, click the chain icon that appears, paste in the link you copied, and then hit enter. Your text has become “Bina Telcher, a contributor on the Urban Africa Project…” Congratulations!

Citations & Footnotes

If your essay is more formal or academic in nature, or if you’re referencing something that doesn’t exist online (such as a book) or exists only behind a paywall (such as a journal article), you should probably use a citation or footnote. Which you use depends on the demands of your specific project.

Here’s how:

1. Go create a footnote or citation for the source you’re referencing. ZoteroBib is a quick, easy, and fast tool for doing this. Here’s an example of a footnote-style citation using Chicago 17th edition, full note:

   Geneveive Newman, “Fungal Zombies and Tentacular Thinking: The Chthonic Mother in the Game The Last of Us,” Studies in the Fantastic 7, no. 1 (2019): 39–50, doi:10.1353/sif.2019.0003.

2. Copy the text of the footnote or citation.

3. In your pub, put your cursor where you want the footnote or citation to go. If you’re following the rules of a specific citation style, you’ll want to defer to those when determining where the footnote or citation should go.

4. Click the citation or footnote icon in the formatting toolbar. They look like this:

   

5. Depending on the citation style your pub uses, you’ll see a number or some other placeholder appear where your cursor is. Click on that.

6. You can now paste the footnote or citation you copied into the “Rich Text” area of the editor. It should look like this:

   

7. Make any edits you need to make in the rich text area, and see how those changes will be reflected in the “Preview” area. When you’re done, hit enter.

8. Congratulations! Now you have a footnote about fungal zombies.1

Citation Resources

Hey, did you know that EasyBib, Citation Machine, and Cite This For Me are all owned by Chegg, which collects data about you and allows advertisers to track you? If you didn’t, now you do. Here are some citation tools and resources that don’t treat you like a product for sale.

• Citation & Style Guides from ZSR Library

• Chicago Manual of Style Quick Guide - Notes and Bibliography Style

• ZoteroBib - a citation generator that’s more powerful and works with more styles than EasyBib et al. No account required. Doesn’t track you or sell your data. Operated by a nonprofit.

• MyBib - a free citation generator that is similar to the others and works with more styles. Provides a more guided experience if you’re new to citation. As of February 2023, it was run by one guy, a former librarian, who was frustrated by the creepy privacy practices of other tools.