We're here to help!
Please review the frequently asked questions for each module.
If you don’t find what you are looking for, feel free to ask us.
You can also request new feature ideas.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Already so many reference managers and citation tools. Why another one new?
But none of them provides tools to make accurate citations (i.e., without any citation malpractices e.g., quotation errors) and share more informative citations (see next FAQ for more) for facilitating the assessment of research manuscripts.
nXr aim is totally different from other reference managers and that is to get more value from citations for writing well-substantiated research papers and accelerating their assessment or peer-review.
What are informative citations?
In traditional reference managers and citation tools, citations in the manuscripts are only linked with their respective references.
But in nXr, citations can be linked with the followings:
- Cited quotes/images
- Quote/image page number in reference PDF
- Citation intent
- Article URL (auto)
- Article PDF (auto, if it is in nXr.iLibrary)
- Citation quality declaration
- Dashboard summarizing and visualizing various data related to citations/references
What is the major difference between nXr and other reference managers?
Ability to make informative citations to avoid citation malpractices and connect authors and reviewers through these citations to accelerate quality assessment or peer-review of academic/scientific writing.
Implicitly, other reference managers also have three functions/modules. Why nXr is explicitly separating them into three modules?
That’s right. All reference manager does three functions (article collection and annotation, article organisation, citing and making reference lists) in somewhat different way.
nXr explicitly has three modules that do these three functions so that new features targeting to improve a specific task can be easily implemented to support user productivity.
See the overview of three nXr modules here.
Do I need different usernames and passwords for the three modules?
No, you don’t. If you sign up for nXr.iLibrary, that username (i.e., unique email) and password will work for both nXr.iNote and nXr.iCIte. Definitely, you can have multiple accounts using different email addresses but each email address will be associated with its own data across the three modules.
How to change the settings of all nXr modules?
Settings for the three modules in nXr can be changed from nXr.iLibrary settings option.
Do I have to pay separately for the three modules?
No, you don’t. A single subscription works for all three.
How to collect articles/quotes/images with annotations in nXr.iNote?
With nXr note-taking module nXr.iNote, you can collect quotes/images from an article webpage or PDF even while searching and browsing.
Just click nXr.iNote Chrome/Edge extension icon when you are on the desired article web page/PDF. Then, select some text or hover the mouse on an image to bring up an input text box with “+” (representing add/collect).
You can add notes or tags in the input box and then click the “+” sign to collect the quotes/images with annotations. nXr.iNote will automatically get the article information and store all things in your library (nXr.iLibrary).
If you didn’t add notes or tags during collecting quotes or images, you can still add then clicking “+” icon below the quotes or images in nXr.iNote or by clicking them in the library.
You can also mark the article as “MARK AS READ” or “READ IT LATER” and nXr.iNote will put the article to its respective location in the library: “All articles” and/or “Read it later”.
Why I can’t add notes/comments independently without associating them with quotes/images from the article in nXr.iNote or nXr?
All notes/comments in nXr.iNote are relational, which means that you can only make comments on selected text or image. This is based on the intuition that any thought that arises while reading any article has some relationship with the article. In that way, you are linking your comments/notes with quotes/images to facilitate accurate citations based on quotes/images in less time.
Soon, nXr.iNote will add a feature to support users in creating annotated bibliographies so that the users can record their independent evaluation of the research articles.
How to create annotated bibliography documents?
Please see this video (50 seconds).
How to create a topic for gathering information from various sources?
Please see this video (1 minute 48 seconds).
You can create topics (through nXr.iNote) for gathering information on issues or questions from various sources (web articles or PDFs).
Later on, with nXr.iCite, you can search topics and cite based on the quotes under them.
Even you can paste a whole topic as quotes with citations at the end to facilitate writing.
How to share articles with other students or researchers from nXr.iNote?
From both nXr.iNote and nXr.iLibrary, you can share articles with anyone if you have their email address. While sharing, nXr will automatically fill up the article’s information. You just type their email address and click SHARE. Use the SHARE icon in nXr.iNote and SHARE option from the menu bar in nXr.iLibrary to execute it.
If the users with whom you are sharing have nXr account, the shared article will also be shown in “Shared to you” list of their library. Isn’t that smart!
Why I can’t see the input for commenting and saving images?
When you scroll in the webpage, the input box disappears to allow reading without any obstruction. In this case, again hover the mouse cursor on the image to bring back the input box. Sometimes, the input box appears at the top part of the image. In that case, please hover the mouse cursor at the top part of the image to view the input box.
How to change nXr.iNote settings or password?
You can change settings or password by making login at nXr.iLibrary www.nxref.com/lib/login which will take you to the Settings page. Note that nXr.iNote, nXr.iLibrary and nXr.iCite all share the same credential.
Why nXr.iNote is not highlighting some of the collected quotes?
When you open nXr.iNote in an article webpage or PDF you have already read, nXr.iNote highlights the quotes you have collected previously.
However, the quotes you collected from an article webpage version can’t be highlighted in the PDF of the same article and vice versa.
The main reason behind it is that when you collect quotes, nXr.iNote keep the end and start positions for the quotes in your database and being different file format these positions don’t match between the article webpage and PDF versions.
In addition, due to the change in how quotes are matched with the article, quotes that were collected before nXr.iNote version 1.9.8 will not be highlighted at all.
Why nXr.iNote sometimes fetch article information partially?
nXr.iNote retrieves article information (e.g., DOI, title of the article) by scraping web pages or PDFs of the articles. On rare occasions, nXr.iNote may fetch article information incompletely for two reasons: 1) incomplete or different definition of metadata describing the article information in HTML head section or 2) no DOI available for the document.
However, incomplete article information is no trouble as you can resolve this by automatic update with CrossRef database in nXr.iCite citation tool.
For the second issue, you can copy the DOI in the DOI input box of the nXr.iNote and press ENTER. Then, it will use the DOI to get the other article information from CrossRef.
Finally, if nothing works (which is rare), you can always use manual editing anywhere in nXr.iNote, nXr.iLibrary and nXr.iCite.
Why nXr.iNote sometimes cannot match the quotes perfectly in the web article?
When there is some special character in the text e.g. [, ], % etc., the procedure nXr.iNote use to match the text cannot match the input text to the target text perfectly. We are working to make the procedure more efficient.
What to do if nXr.iNote does not start after clicking its icon?
Please reload the page by using “Refresh” icon in the Navigation Bar of Chrome Browser or press Ctrl+R on your keyboard. Then, click the nXr.iNote icon again.
What to do if nXr.iNote stop responding?
On rare occasions, if subsequent notes and images are collected in a very short interval, nXr.iNote may stop responding or show infinite busy status. In that case, just refresh the webpage and start the nXr.iNote again.
What to do if nXr.iNote shows content of an article opened in the adjacent tab of the browser?
After using nXr.iNote in one tab, if it is opened and used very quickly in another tab, nXr.iNote may display the information of the article opened in the first tab. In that case, just refresh the webpage and start the nXr.iNote again.
Why I can’t see all the features of nXr.iCite?
Any update in nXr.iCite from our side should be reflected automatically on your side.
However, sometimes you may need to clean the web add-ins cache in Office 365 Microsoft Word to see all the features.
You can do it by the followings:
- Click Word File menu > Options
- Click Trust Center > Trust Center Settings
- Click Trusted Add-in Catalogs > Check “Next time office starts, clear all previously web add-ins cache” > OK
- Restart Word application
- Click Word Insert Menu > My Add-ins > Select nXr.iCite > Click Add
How to create annotated bibliography documents?
Please see this video (50 seconds).
How to cite articles, quotes, or images in nXr.iCite?
Tick the selection boxes on the left of articles, notes or images as necessary. Then click UPDATE CITATION button at the top of the cited item list.
Now, you can also select notes/images to cite from “Articles” view without using “Notes” and “Images” views. Click “Notes/Images” icon at the top-right corner of each article bar and select notes/images as necessary, and then click UPDATE CITATION.
Note that, if you don’t click UPDATE CITATION button, no action is taken.
How to cite based on the quotes under a topic?
Please see the end part (from 1 minute 18 seconds) of this video (1 minute 48 seconds).
You can create topics (through nXr.iNote) for gathering information on issues or questions from various sources (web articles or PDFs).
Later on, with nXr.iCite, you can search topics and cite based on the quotes under them.
Even you can paste a whole topic as quotes with citations at the end to facilitate writing.
How to specify the cited quote/image page numbers in the cited reference?
Open nXr.iCite add-inn in your Word document and then click an inline citation. nXr.iCite will show citation information on the top part of its pane. From there, click “Citation Settings” icon to provide page numbers.
You can specify page numbers in two ways: Relative and Exact.
In the case of “Relative” numbering, by ignoring the real page numbering of the PDF, you assume that it page number start from “1”. Then, you determine the page numbers where the cited quotes are located. Note that, many journals’ PDFs page numbering starts from “1” irrespective of their location in a specific journal volume and issue.
In the case of “Exact” numbering, you specify the page numbers according to the page numbering provided by the journal.
Note that, nXr.iNote supports you to share all citation information with the reviewers for enabling quality assessment of your work.
Why nXr.iCite support the inclusion of cited quote/image page numbers in the cited article PDF?
Errors (e.g., quotation errors) related to referencing are common. They can have a great detrimental impact on scientific communications as referencing plays a vital role in scientific writing. On referencing, read here and here.
A potential solution (suggested by Smith and Cumberledge) for minimizing quotation errors is to include page (containing the cited quotes) numbers of the referenced articles in citation styles. However, most of the journals don’t support such citation styles.
Therefore, as an alternative, in nXr.iCite, by clicking the “Citation Settings” icon you can provide page numbers and then share them with the peer-reviewers.
How to provide citation intent for each citation in nXr.iCite?
Open nXr.iCite add-inn in your Word document and then click an inline citation. nXr.iCite will show citation information on the top part of its pane. From there, click “Citation Settings” icon to provide citation intent.
You can specify citation context in two steps:
Step 1: All scientific papers follow the same writing format: IMRAD. IMRAD stands for different parts of the papers: Introduction (I), Methods (M) and Result and Discussion (RAD).
Therefore, in the first step, by selecting any one option, you are specifying the part the citation belong to. By doing this, you are defining the citation role on a macro level.
Step 2: In the second step, you define the citation context in a micro-level by specifying its intent. You can specify one of four intents:
Compare and contrast: if the citing paper expresses similarities, differences to, or disagrees, with the cited paper.
Motivation: if the citing paper is directly motivated by the cited paper.
Extension: if the citing paper motivation is to extend the methods, tools or data etc. of the cited paper.
Future: if the cited paper is a potential avenue for future work.
Definitions of the intents are from https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3383583.3398617.
Note that nXr.iNote supports you to share all citation information with the reviewers for enabling quality assessment of your work.
What role does “Citation intent” play in nXr.iCite citation settings?
By defining the citation intent, authors demonstrate that they are not doing redundant referencing which may reflect various kinds of serious citation malpractices. With the citation intent information, reviewers can validate authors’ claims robustly in less time.
Moreover, such meticulous referencing (e.g., providing quote page number and citation intent) strengthen attention on the whole research procedure, facilitating better scientific thought process, analysis and better research reporting. It may also reveal a researcher’s attention to detail at all levels of his/her research (Santini 2018).
How to share cited references (with links and PDFs), quotes/images and their page number, and citation intent with reviewers/mentors assessing your work?
You can share these in two ways or by using both ways:
First way: Open the nXr.iCite add-in in the Word document you want to share with reviewers/mentors. Then click the “Share” icon from the top part of nXr.iCite pane. From the opened form, copy mock ID and Password (PW) and click “SHARE”. Finally, send mock ID and PW to reviewers/mentors along with your manuscript (in MS Office) as shown in this video (25 seconds). Also, ask the reviewers/mentors not to change the document file name.
When the reveiwers/mentors will log into nXr.iCite with the mock ID and PW in your document, upon clicking a citation in the document, they will automatically view all the cited information with the document side by side.
Second way: nXr.iCite automatically create a dashboard in nXr.iLibrary for the references in each document which contains a data summary and visualizations on the references, and a reference list with all the citation information. You can create a sharable link to the dashboard and share it with the reviewers/mentors.
How I can make my all citation information (references with links, quotes/images and their page number, citation intent) available to journal reviewers?
You can share these in two ways:
First way: The first way is less complicated as it doesn’t need help from the journal. Though you can avoid the complication by using this approach, the reviewers will not be able to check references with the document side by side. However, the first approach works for both Word and PDF documents, whereas the second approach works only for Word documents.
nXr.iCite automatically create a dashboard in nXr.iLibrary for the references in each document which contains a data summary and visualizations on the references, and a reference list with all the citation information. You can create a sharable link to the dashboard and share it with the journal reviewers directly by including the following paragraph at the end of the “Materials and Methods” section of the manuscript.
Citation and References
Citations in the manuscripts were substantiated by direct quotes/images, and/or their page numbers in the references and citation intent by using nXr-next X(G)eneration referencing (https://nxref.com). These materials can be viewed along with data summary on reference and citation characteristics at [your dashboard link].
Note that, for each user and each document, the dashboard is unique and anytime you cancel the sharing or activate the sharing.
Second way: Open the nXr.iCite add-in in the Word document you want to share with reviewers/mentors. Then click the “Share” icon from the top part of nXr.iCite pane. From the opened form, copy mock ID and Password (PW) and click “SHARE”. Finally, send mock ID and PW to reviewers/mentors along with your manuscript (in MS Office) as shown in this video (25 seconds).
When the reviewers will log into nXr.iCite with the mock ID and PW in your document, upon clicking a citation in the document, they will automatically view all the cited information with the document side by side.
As you don’t know the journal reviewers, you may need to take help from the journal editor or journal manuscript processing system to pass along the mock ID and PW. Also, ask the journal to brief the reviewers on using nXr.iCite and not to change the document file name while sending it to the reviewers.
We are already working with publishers to integrate the process into their publishing system. Please contact us at www.nxref.com/contact-us/ with the desired journal name and publisher to check whether we are working with the publisher. If we are not working, we can start a discussion with the publisher based on your and other authors’ requests.
How to choose citation format?
You can change the citation format at any time. The default format for nXr.iCite is APA. If you want to change, please click “Document References” and search through “Select reference style” by journal name. If you do not find the desired style, please use “Request style” and we will guide you through it.
How to delete cited references, quotes and images?
You can delete quoted notes and images under each citation or remove the whole citation altogether by clicking corresponding cross signs and then clicking UPDATE CITATION. Please see this video (24 seconds).
What to do when I can’t find the format in the style list I would like to use?
If you do not find the desired style, please click “Document References” and click “Request style” to contact us and we will guide you through.
Why my reviewers are seeing different numbering of the citations in the manuscript?
If the citation style in there nXr.iNote account is different than the one you have used in your manuscript, they may see different numbering. Please ask them to change style by clicking “Document References” and using “Select reference style” to select the citation style you have used.
Why the article information in the reference list is not correct even after choosing the right style?
Sometimes article information is not collected properly according to the article type (e.g. book, journal article or conference) from the metadata by web scraping. If this is the case, please correct the article information automatically by syncing with CrossRef database from nXr.iCite.
If it doesn’t work, you can edit article information manually from nXr.iCite or nXr.iLibrary. Even if this do not solve the issue, please contact us at www.nxref.com/contact-us/.
How to update the data in nXr.iCite to view the notes I just added using nXr.iNote?
Please click the synchronisation icon on the top-right of the nXr.iCite add-in and search the keywords again by pressing enter in the search box.
How to search for new articles on the web with nXr.iLibrary?
You can use Semantic Scholar AI from nXr.iLibrary to search articles on the web and add them to your library. Semantic Scholar AI (semanticscholar.org) is a leading AI tool to find relevant scholarly articles effectively.
How to add new research topics i.e., labels to group articles in nXr.iLibrary?
You can add new labels to group articles in two ways.
First: Log in to nXr.iLibrary, then click “SETTINGS” icon on the top-right corner, select “USER” tab and scroll down. Below the previous labels, you will see a input box with “+” sign. Write new labels and click the “+” sign. Finally click “UPDATE” at the bottom.
Second: If you add new labels to an article and the labels are created for the first time, nXr.iLibrary automatically adds the labels to your database.
How to add edit or delete research topics i.e., labels to group articles?
Log in to nXr.iLibrary, click “SETTINGS” icon on the top-right corner, select “USER” tab and scroll down to see the labels.
Edit single or multiple labels and click “UPDATE” at the bottom.
To delete labels, click “–” sign on the left of each label and click “UPDATE” at the bottom.
How to filter or find articles quickly in nXr.iLibrary?
First, you can filter the articles by selecting a main category e.g., “All articles” or “Read it later”.
Then, you can use nXr.iLibrary unique multilabel filtering to view specific sets of articles from the main categories. Just select group labels according to your need and the articles will be filtered according to that.
You can also apply search queries on the article set filtered by the main category and single/multiple article grouping labels.
Note that any filtering or search queries you applied remain active until you clear or deselect them.
I can see quotes and images but where are the associated notes?
If you click each article, tabs at the right will show article information, quotes and images. Here you can see the notes/tags associated with each quote or image and can also edit the notes/tags.
Once you activate the Quotes/Images view, you will see an array of quotes and images. If you click a quote or image, it will show the associated notes/tags and the article information related to the quote/image. You can also edit the notes/tags here.
In addition, you can filter articles/quotes/images based on notes/tags by selecting the respective option while performing search queries.
I am changing article information but change is not showing immediately, why?
To see the changes immediately, just refresh the nXr.iLibrary page.
How to update my profile or password?
You can change settings or password by making login at nXr.iLibrary (www.nxref.com/lib/login) and clicking the settings icon at the top right corner of the library. Note that nXr.iNote, nXr.iLibrary and nXr.iCite all share the same credential.
How can I update the plan and make payment?
Sign in to your nXr.iLibrary (www.nxref.com/lib/login) and click the settings icon at the top right corner. which will take you to the Settings page. Then click “Renew Plan”
Note that nXr three modules (nXr.iNote, nXr.iLibrary and nXr.iCite) share the same credential and a single payment give you access to all modules.
In group library view, how I will identify the articles that I have also read?
The colour of the user icon in the quick access icons groups (which are located at the right of each article item in the list view) will indicate whether the article was read-only by you, or only by group or both.
When you activate group library view by toggling library option to the right, user access icon with gold colour and value “1” will indicate that only you have read that article. If the colour is gold but the number is more than “1”, then other users in the group also have read that article. If the colour of the user icon has not changed to gold, that means you did not read that article.
What are informative citations?
In nXr, each citation can be linked with the following information:
- Cited quotes/images
- Quote/image page number in reference PDF
- Citation intent
- Article URL (auto)
- Article PDF (auto, if it is in nXr.iLibrary)
- Citation quality declaration
- Dashboard summarizing and visualizing various data related to citations/references
In nXr, you can make informative citations while with others, you only make citations.
How can I make informative citations?
You can make informative citations by using nXr.iCite which works integrally with nXr.iNote and nXr.iLibrary.
See nXr.iCite FAQs.
How to share informative citations with reviewers/mentors for assessing/reviewing your work by using nXr.iCite?
Open the nXr.iCite add-in in the Word document you want to share with reviewers/mentors. Then click the “Share” icon from the top part of nXr.iCite pane. From the opened form, copy mock ID and Password (PW) and click “SHARE”. Finally, send mock ID and PW to reviewers/mentors along with your manuscript (in MS Office) as shown in this video (25 seconds). Also, ask the reviewers/mentors not to change the document file name.
When the reviewers/mentors will log into nXr.iCite with the mock ID and PW in your document, upon clicking a citation in the document, they will automatically view all the cited information with the document side by side.
How to share informative citations with reviewers/mentors by using nXr.iLibrary?
nXr.iCite automatically creates a dashboard in nXr.iLibrary for the references in each document which contains a data summary and visualizations on the references, and a reference list with all the citation information. You can create a sharable link to the dashboard. Then, share it with the reviewers/mentors by adding a paragraph (see below) in the “Materials and Methos” section of your research manuscripts or email.
Citation and References
Citations in the manuscripts were substantiated by direct quotes/images, and/or their page numbers in the references and citation intent by using nXr-next X(G)eneration referencing (https://nxref.com). These materials can be viewed along with data summary on reference and citation characteristics at https://www.nxref.com/lib/shared-refs-dashboard/xyz.