OverCite: Add citations in LaTeX without leaving the editor
OverCite reduces friction in the citation workflow for LaTeX users across scientific fields, but it is an incremental tool improvement rather than a novel method.
OverCite is an open-source tool that allows LaTeX authors to find, select, and insert citations without leaving the editor, using citation placeholders and sentence context to query the ADS/SciX database. It supports multiple scientific disciplines and is available as an Overleaf integration and VS Code extension.
Adding citations while drafting in LaTeX often requires leaving the editor, searching for a paper in mind, copying its BibTeX entry into the project bibliography, renaming the cite key, and then returning to the sentence. \texttt{OverCite} is an open-source, lightweight tool that lets authors find, select, and insert citations without leaving the writing environment. In Overleaf, \texttt{OverCite} uses rough citation placeholders (e.g., $\texttt{\textbackslash citep\{Perlmutter1999\}}$) and local sentence context to query ADS/SciX-indexed literature, rank likely matches, and insert the selected reference, without leaving the editor. A companion \texttt{VS Code} extension provides the same functionality for local LaTeX projects. The ADS/SciX database includes astronomy, physics, computer science, mathematics, biology, and \emph{all} indexed arXiv e-prints, making \texttt{OverCite} useful across a broad range of scientific disciplines.