Citelle · Library
Keep a source title and its reviewed capitalization together
Keep the title as printed on the source next to reviewed sentence-case and title-case forms, and see which form each style displays.
Three title fields in the workbench
The workbench keeps three versions of a title. Source title holds the wording as it appears on the work you read, here A Sample Article. Reviewed sentence-case title holds a form you have checked for sentence case, A sample article, and Reviewed title-case title holds a checked title-case form, A Sample Article. All three are typed by you. The workbench does not create the reviewed forms; it only chooses which one to print.
Which style reads which field
APA 7, IEEE and NLM Citing Medicine use the sentence-case field. MLA 9 and both Chicago forms use the title-case field. The second table shows the result for the article: the APA entry reads A sample article, and the MLA entry reads “A Sample Article.” If the reviewed field for the chosen style is empty, the workbench falls back to the source title exactly as typed. It does not recase or translate it, so an empty field can leave a title in the wrong case without any warning.
Reviewing a title step by step
- Copy the wording and punctuation from the source you consulted into Source title.
- Before changing capitals, mark names, acronyms and words with intentional internal capitals such as iPhone.
- Type the reviewed form into the field your style uses, and keep the original.
- Check the journal or book title separately; it lives in Containing work or site.
- Press Create reference and read the title in the output, not only in the form.
The app changes case for you
The Citelle app works the other way around: it stores one title and converts its case for each style. The edit screen tip says to keep proper nouns capitalized, and for APA, Harvard, IEEE, Vancouver and ABNT the Are these names? prompt asks about capitalized words that would be lowered, so you can keep them. Acronyms and words with internal capitals, such as DNA or iPhone, are kept. Titles in non-Latin scripts are left as they are, and for those APA offers a Title in English field shown in square brackets after the original.
Why this matters
A changed capital can turn a name into an ordinary word, and a careless edit can become a paraphrase or point to a different work. Keeping the original title next to its reviewed forms lets you see what changed.
One title record, two reviewed forms
| Field | Supplied string |
|---|---|
| Original title | A Sample Article |
| Reviewed sentence-case title | A sample article |
| Reviewed title-case title | A Sample Article |
The three strings in this invented example are supplied explicitly. The formatter is not generating the reviewed forms. A title containing a proper noun, acronym or intentional internal capitalization still needs a reader who understands the work.
Follow the selected display
| Reference selection | Text returned in this example |
|---|---|
| APA article | Stone, M. (2024). A sample article. Journal of Sample Studies, 12(2), 12–18. |
| MLA article | Stone, Maya. “A Sample Article.” Journal of Sample Studies, vol. 12, no. 2, 2024, pp. 12–18. |
The selected article display uses the corresponding supplied title form. That shows where an entered form appears; it does not independently prove that the capitalization is correct for every source or that all optional reference details have been checked.
Tools
Library
Next guide: APA 7: cite a journal article