The prompt
Score 10 of 10, Excellent
Use it when You have a list of sources in mixed formats and need them in one citation style, with nothing added that you did not supply.
- {{style}}
- {{publication}}
- {{sources}}
- {{style_notes}}
Full prompt and why it works
Prompt
Format the sources below as a reference list in {{style}}, for {{publication}}, so that the list can go straight into my manuscript and every in-text citation matches an entry. Editors and reviewers check references closely, and one invented or wrong detail can make them doubt the rest of the work. My sources, in whatever form I have them (copied citations, notes, links, details from title pages): """ {{sources}} """ Style rules or quirks from the publisher's author guidelines, if any: """ {{style_notes}} """ Produce: 1. The reference list, formatted in {{style}} and in the order that style uses: alphabetical by first author, or numbered by first citation if the style is numbered and I have given the order of citation. 2. A table of in-text citation forms, with one row per source and the columns Source, First citation, Later citations, With a page number, so I can see how each source is cited in the text. 3. Missing or uncertain: every entry with a detail the style needs that my sources do not give. The finished list should be consistent to the last comma and full stop, because editors notice small inconsistencies before anything else. Format every entry using only the details I have given. Do not look up, guess or complete authors, years, titles, journal names, volume or issue numbers, page ranges, publishers, DOIs or URLs, even if you think you know them, because a plausible but wrong detail is worse than a visible gap. Where a detail is missing, write a placeholder such as [MISSING: year] in the entry. Keep titles as given, changing only capitalization and italics as the style requires. For example, the form of a journal article entry in APA style: "Surname, A. B., & Surname, C. (Year). Title of the article. Journal Name, Volume(Issue), Pages. https://doi.org/[DOI]". That example shows the form only; follow {{style}} exactly, including its punctuation. If two of my sources look like the same work, list them under "Possible duplicates" rather than merging them. If a source's type is unclear, for example a report that might be a book or a web page, say which type you used and why in the uncertain list. If I have not said which edition of the style to use, name the edition you followed at the top so I can check it against the guidelines.
Variables
- {{style}}
- The citation style, for example "APA 7th edition", "Chicago author-date" or a journal's house style.
- {{publication}}
- Where the work is going, for example "a journal article" or "my master's thesis".
- {{sources}}
- Your sources as you have them: pasted citations, notes, links, details copied from title pages.
- {{style_notes}}
- Any rules from the author guidelines that differ from the standard style, or "none".
Why it works
- What to avoid. No author, year, page range or DOI is looked up or completed from memory, because a plausible wrong detail in a reference list is worse than a visible gap.
- If unsure. Missing details become [MISSING] placeholders and possible duplicates are listed rather than merged, so you decide what each source really is.
- Format. A table of in-text forms sits beside the list, so citations in the text match the entries they point to.