Cite This Article ~ Author Box

Description

Cite This Article helps online publishers give readers a reliable way to cite and credit their work. Built for academic, medical, research-heavy, and other source-driven websites, it adds author information and ready-to-use article citations directly to WordPress posts.

Build author boxes for single- or multiple-author posts, add guest authors manually when a WordPress account is not needed, 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 that gives readers a consistent way to identify the article’s authors and publication details, copy the article citation, or export the reference to their reference manager.

Cite This Article is designed for publishers whose work may itself become a source — from academic and medical publications to research-heavy blogs, journalism, analysis, and other evidence-driven content.

• Documentation
• Support
• Changelog

Free citation tools at CiteKit.com

• Citation generator
• Bibliography generator
• Reference library
• Citation link checker
• Citation schema generator
• Cite a GitHub repository in Harvard
• Cite a Reddit post in Vancouver
• Cite a trademark in APA
• Cite an SEC filing in APA
• Cite a website in MLA
• Cite a YouTube video in IEEE
• Cite a book in AMA
• Cite ChatGPT in APA

Citation and Author Box Features

• Ready-to-use article citations for readers
• One-click citation copying
• BibTeX, RIS, and CSL-JSON exports for reference managers
• Citation-aware page metadata for tools such as Zotero
• Article citation generation for all resolved authors
• Native multiple-author support
• Guest authors through manual author entry or supported integrations
• Combined author box or individual author cards
• Automatic WordPress author profiles and bios
• Automatic Co-Authors Plus author and guest-author resolution
• Local author images from the WordPress Media Library
• Individual author avatars and profile images
• Per-author manual bio and description overrides
• Horizontal and vertical author box layouts
• Single/group image, individual images, or no-image display
• Round or square author images
• Small, medium, and large avatar sizing
• Gutenberg block and shortcode support
• Lightweight front-end output with no external framework dependency

Multiple Authors

Cite This Article supports multiple authors natively rather than requiring a particular multi-author plugin.

Multiple authors can come from:

• Manual authors entered in the Gutenberg block
• Manual authors supplied through the shortcode
• Authors supplied by a supported author integration
• 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 in two ways:

Combined — All resolved authors appear together in one author box.

Individual — Each resolved author receives a separate author card with their own avatar and author bio where available. One shared citation panel continues to represent the complete article and all of its authors.

Manual description overrides are available for individual authors, while profile biographies are used automatically when available.

See the Multiple Authors documentation for configuration details.

Author Bios and Profiles

Cite This Article can automatically use WordPress author profile information to build an author bio box.

Depending on the author source and layout, the plugin can display:

• Author display name
• Author biography or description
• Author avatar
• Locally selected author image from the WordPress Media Library
• Manually overridden author description

In Individual layout, each author can have their own author bio and profile image.

Visual author-box information remains separate from the author names used to generate the article citation. Changing a display name or author bio does not replace the citation author list.

Cite This Article

The reader-facing Cite This Article panel turns the finished WordPress article into something readers can identify, cite, and save more reliably.

The citation panel:

• Generates a citation for the current article
• Includes all resolved article authors
• Supports multiple authors natively
• Provides one-click citation copying
• Offers BibTeX, RIS, and CSL-JSON downloads for reference managers
• Optionally links to CiteKit for reformatting into additional citation styles
• Remains shared when authors are displayed as separate individual cards

The plugin can also output citation-aware page metadata (Google/Highwire citation_* tags) so tools such as Zotero and other reference managers can recognize and save your articles more accurately.

This combines author presentation with a consistent reader-facing way to cite and credit the published work.

Gutenberg Block

The plugin includes a dedicated Gutenberg block called Author Box with Citation.

Block controls include:

• Combined or Individual author layout
• Manual multiple-author and guest-author entry
• Single, individual, or no-image display
• WordPress Media Library image overrides
• Per-author description overrides
• Horizontal or vertical layout
• Round or square avatars
• Small, medium, or large avatar sizing

Leave the manual authors field empty to let Cite This Article resolve the post author automatically.

The block can be used as a simple WordPress author bio box or as a complete multiple-author presentation and article-citation component.

See Layout & Styling for display options.

Shortcode

Use the [author_box] shortcode anywhere WordPress shortcodes are supported.

Basic Author Box

[author_box]

Displays the automatically resolved post author using the default author box settings.

Horizontal Author Box

[author_box layout="horizontal"]

Vertical Author Box

[author_box layout="vertical"]

Round Author Image

[author_box avatar_shape="round"]

Square Author Image

[author_box avatar_shape="square"]

Large Author Image

[author_box avatar_size="lg"]

Small Author Image

[author_box avatar_size="sm"]

Author Box Without an Image

[author_box image_mode="none"]

Combined Multiple-Author Box

[author_box author_layout="combined"]

Displays all resolved authors together in one author box.

Individual Multiple-Author Cards

[author_box author_layout="individual" image_mode="individual"]

Displays one author card for each resolved author.

Manual Multiple Authors or Guest Authors

[author_box authors="Jane Doe|John Smith|Alex Lee"]

Manual authors do not need WordPress user accounts, so they can also be used for guest contributors.

Manual Multiple Authors With Individual Cards

[author_box authors="Jane Doe|John Smith|Alex Lee" author_layout="individual" image_mode="individual"]

Manual Author Name

[author_box name="Jane Doe"]

Custom Author Tagline

[author_box tagline="Science and Health Editor"]

Custom Author Bio

[author_box description="Jane writes about evidence-based health, nutrition, and medical research."]

Custom Name, Tagline and Bio

[author_box name="Jane Doe" tagline="Senior Editor" description="Jane covers research, policy, and public health."]

Custom Author Image URL

[author_box image="https://example.com/images/jane-doe.jpg"]

WordPress Media Library Image

[author_box image_id="123"]

Multiple Authors With Individual Images

[author_box authors="Jane Doe|John Smith" author_layout="individual" image_mode="individual" author_images="123|456"]

Customized Horizontal Author Box

[author_box name="Jane Doe" tagline="Senior Editor" layout="horizontal" avatar_shape="square" avatar_size="lg"]

Customized Vertical Author Box

[author_box name="Jane Doe" description="Jane covers research and public health." layout="vertical" avatar_shape="round" avatar_size="md"]

Render an Author Box for Another Post

[author_box post_id="123"]

Custom Heading

[author_box title="Written by"]

Choose Which Export Links to Show

[author_box export="bib,ris,csl-json"]

Hide the Export Links

[author_box export="none"]

Accepted Attributes

• name — Override the displayed author name
• authors — Supply multiple or guest authors separated with |
• tagline — Override the author tagline
• description — Override the author bio or description
• image — Supply an author image URL
• image_id — Use an image from the WordPress Media Library
• author_images — Supply image IDs for multiple individual authors
• author_layout — combined or individual
• image_mode — single, individual, or none
• layout — horizontal or vertical
• avatar_shape — round or square
• avatar_size — sm, md, or lg
• title — Override the author-box heading for this box
• export — Choose export formats (bib, ris, csl-json) or none to hide them
• post_id — Render the author box using another post’s author context

Author Resolution

Cite This Article resolves the article’s author collection separately from its visual author-box fields.

By default, authors are resolved in this order:

1. Manual authors entered in the block or shortcode
2. Authors supplied by a supported integration
3. The standard WordPress post author
4. The site name as a final fallback

Manual authors can be used for named guest contributors who do not have WordPress accounts.

This means multiple-author and guest-author support are part of Cite This Article itself rather than being tied to one particular author plugin.

Citation generation and author-box presentation use the same resolved author collection, while visual fields such as display names, bios, and images can be customized independently.

Integrations

Cite This Article supports author integrations that can provide the author collection used by the author box, multiple-author layouts, and article citation.

Co-Authors Plus

Co-Authors Plus is currently supported automatically.

When Co-Authors Plus is active, Cite This Article can:

• Resolve all authors assigned to the post
• Support Co-Authors Plus guest authors
• Use guest-author avatars
• Use guest-author descriptions as author bios
• Display authors together or as individual author cards
• Include every resolved author in the article citation

No separate shortcode or special integration setup is required when automatic author resolution is enabled.

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.

Layout and Display

Author boxes can be displayed horizontally or vertically.

Image controls include:

• One image for a combined author group
• Individual profile images for individual author cards
• Local images selected from the WordPress Media Library
• No author image
• Round or square image shapes
• Small, medium, or large image sizes

Combined layout is useful for compact multi-author articles. Individual layout is useful when each contributor needs a distinct author bio, image, or description.

See the Layout & Styling documentation for configuration details.

Upgrade to Premium

The free plugin covers what most sites need: author boxes, multiple and guest authors, article citations, reference-manager exports, and citation metadata.

Premium is for publications that need to control where and how author boxes appear across different kinds of content. These features are not included in this free plugin.

• Custom post type support — Use Cite This Article on research articles, reviews, reports, resources, or any other registered custom post type, not just standard posts
• Per-content-type profiles — Give each custom post type its own author-box layout, image settings, citation visibility, and presentation defaults
• Advanced placement and targeting — Insert author boxes by content position, CSS selector, or theme hook, with rules for posts, authors, categories, and taxonomies
• Display and exclusion rules — Show or hide the author box on specific posts, authors, categories, or taxonomies, with duplicate protection

Learn more at CiteKit.