Using Legal Citation Checking and Citation Management Software

These tools for Boston College Law faculty and students will help you manage your citations as you collect your sources for your latest article or your writing assignment.  Some tools will check and correct automatically as you enter legal citations. In addition, some tools will extract your citations to produce a table of authorities for your document, and run batch checking of all cited authority using a citator tool.  See details below.

BC Law students: Please check your course guidelines or speak with your professor to ensure that you are allowed to use these products.  Some classes, such as Law Practice I and II, have course rules restricting the use of citation-formatting aids.

Lexis offers two tools from the Lexis+ interface. Log in to Lexis+ and then select Legal Research; choose the Tools tab. You will see Brief Check and Brief Link are available.

Lexis offers registered users the option of downloading a Word add-in known as Lexis for Microsoft Office. Once you’ve downloaded Lexis for Microsoft Office, it will appear in your Word ribbon.  You can cite-check a document for conformance to Bluebook style and the software will flag any citations which do not correspond to a citation in the Lexis database.  In addition, you can run a Shepard’s citation check for all citations in your document. After you’ve reviewed the Shepard’s flags, you can remove the flags from the document prior to submission.  

You can create a table of authorities for your document using Lexis for Microsoft Office. Download this add-on by navigating to http://lexisnexis.custhelp.com/app/answers/answer_view/a_id/1091244/~/download-lexis-for-microsoft-office  Enter your Lexis+ username and password. From the next screen, select Windows or Mac versions.

Tool features:

• Insert Shepard's Citations flags.
• Check citation formatting, including Bluebook.
• Create and insert a table of authorities. 
• Check the status of all or selected citations. 
• Create a Cited Decisions list.
• Verify quotations - verify quotations within your document if the cited material is contained within a case, statute, regulation, law review, treatise, etc. on the Lexis Advance platform.

Documentation for Lexis for Microsoft Office is available here.

vLex offers an add-on tool, vLex for Microsoft Word. This tool recognizes citations originating in multiple jurisdictions,    including the United Kingdom, U.S., Canada, Mexico, and Spain.

Westlaw offers practice support tools to students and faculty. Drafting Assistant allows you to upload a Word document and then choose from a menu of tools.

Key features include:

• Insert KeyCite flags.
• Check citation formatting, including Bluebook.
• Designate your document as either a Legal Brief or a Law Review for formatting.
• Insert a table of authorities. 
• Check the status of citations. 
• Create a Cited Decisions list.
• Verify quotations - use QuoteRight feature within WestCheck.

Locate Drafting Assistant Essential from the pull-down menu displayed after you log in to Westlaw. The menu ribbon displays as "Westlaw, TWEN, Practical Law" and selecting the pull-down expands the options to show Drafting  Assistant. Documentation for Drafting Assistant is available here. 

EndNote is a web-based tool that allows users to collect, organize and format references. EndNote is a fee-based subscription; cost is paid by the individual user. There is no institutional license for BC users.  This product supports many bibliographic styles including Chicago, MLA, and the Bluebook.    

RefWorks is being phased out at Boston College effective June 2022.  Alternative tool is PowerNotes, which is licensed for use by the BC Law community.