Inline citations, and every source listed.
Inline citations are the links in the body of an article that point to the sources behind its claims. Mastheads writes every article from sources searched, fetched and read at the time of writing, with real inline citations beside the claims. The full source list stays with the article, so you can see what it was written from instead of relying on a green tick.
Mastheads states a limit that inline citation tools often leave out. There is not a link on every claim, and below is what you get instead.
Inline citations and the source list are different things. You get both.
An inline citation is the link in the sentence. The source list is the record of everything the article was written from. A tool that gives you the first without the second shows its best sources and keeps the rest to itself.
Links where the claim is
Inline citations are real links in the prose, placed where a reader meets the statement rather than gathered at the foot of the page.
A readable number of them
Enough to show the work, not so many that the paragraph stops being readable. The cap closed a real defect: one draft came back with eight links and one outlet cited four times.
Written from pages that were read
Sources are searched and fetched at the time of writing, and the article is written from those pages, so a link points at a page the editorial desks used.
Every source, listed
The full set the article was written from stays with the article, including the sources whose claims did not need a link in the body.
The checks, and what failed them
What was checked against those sources, and anything that could not be put right, is named on the article with the repair it needs.
A credit line, or none
Where one outlet first reported the news, the article says so. Where several outlets covered it, the line is withheld instead of guessed at.
Inline citations do not mean a link on every claim.
The number of inline links is limited to keep the prose readable, rather than to match the source count. A 700-word article written from six sources carries about two links in its body, and all six sources are still listed with the article.
The cap exists because the alternative was worse. Without it, a draft came back with eight links in under a thousand words and one outlet cited four times, which reads as padding, not sourcing. The link limit keeps the prose readable, while the source list records every source.
If you need a footnote against every sentence for an academic submission, Mastheads is not the tool, and no citation style picker is coming. It is built for publishing, where the inline link is the convention.
How Mastheads finds sources for inline citations.
Mastheads searches, fetches and judges sources before the writing starts, and outlets you rule out are never fetched or cited. You can run that step on its own with Find sources and read what came back before you spend an article on it.
Questions about inline citations
What are inline citations in an AI-written article?
Inline citations are links in an article's body that point to the source behind a claim, where the reader encounters it. Mastheads writes each article from sources it searched, fetched and read at the time of writing, and places inline citations beside the claims. The full source list stays with the article, so you can audit what it was written from.
Does Mastheads add inline citations to its articles?
Yes. Mastheads writes every article from real web sources and places inline citations in the body, where a reader meets each claim. It also keeps the full source list with the article, including the sources whose claims did not need a link in the body.
Does every claim get an inline citation?
No. Mastheads limits the number of inline citations rather than adding one link per sentence: a 700-word article written from six sources carries about two links in its body, not six. Every source the article used is still recorded in its source list, including those not linked in the prose, so no source is lost.
What is the difference between the inline citations and the source list?
In Mastheads, the inline citations are the links placed in the body of the article, where a reader meets the claim. The source list is the complete set of sources the article was written from, kept with the article. The body carries a readable number of links, and the list carries all of the sources.
Where do the sources for the citations come from?
Mastheads finds sources for its citations by searching, fetching and judging web pages at the time of writing, not by recalling them from a model's memory. The same sourcing runs whether you request an article by hand or the newsroom writes it on a schedule. You can run that step on its own with Find sources before you spend an article.
Can an inline citation point to a page Mastheads never read?
No. An inline citation to a page Mastheads never fetched cannot appear in your published article. Mastheads writes each article from pages it searched, fetched and judged at the time of writing, so a link in the body points to a page the editorial desks used.
Can I stop Mastheads citing a particular outlet?
Yes. Outlets you rule out in Mastheads are never fetched or cited. Mastheads searches, fetches and judges the remaining sources at the time of writing, and you can run Find sources on its own to read what came back before you spend an article.
Can I turn citations off for part of an article?
Yes, you can turn citations off per section in Mastheads. This changes only their presentation: Mastheads still searches, fetches and checks the sources for that section, and leaves the article's source list and attribution line unchanged. Links intended for a section with citations turned off go to sections with citations still on, so the article keeps its links.
Does Mastheads support APA, MLA or Chicago citation styles?
Mastheads does not support APA, MLA or Chicago citation styles, and there is no plan to add them. Those styles belong to academic writing, where a bibliography is the convention. Mastheads is built for publishing, where a link inside the sentence is the convention, and a style picker would work against it.
What does Mastheads do when a claim cannot be checked?
Mastheads identifies any claim it cannot check on the article itself. Each claim is checked against the sources the article used, and any unresolved problem is stated on the article with what it would take to fix it, rather than hidden behind a green tick.
Who gets the credit when one outlet reported something first?
Mastheads ends an article with a credit line, "Originally reported by the outlet", only when the sources the article was written from name one outlet. Where two or more independent outlets covered the same news, no single one of them originated it, so the line is withheld instead of guessed at. Mastheads never invents a credit line where the writer wrote none.
Can I try Mastheads inline citations for free?
Yes. Every new Mastheads account gets a free trial of 10 articles over 7 days, with no card required. Each trial article is written from sources searched at the time of writing, with inline citations in the body and the source list kept with it.