Paste quotes and pasted sources to fuzzy-match each quote to its source. Free, no sign-up.
What this tool does
Long papers quote many sources, and a quote pasted under the wrong source name is a misattribution that survives editing because the quote itself looks fine. This matcher compares each pasted quote against each pasted source passage by word overlap and reports the best match with a similarity score, so a quote sitting under the wrong heading gets caught before submission instead of after publication.
Why it matters
Good citations do quiet work. They let a reader find every source you used, they show that your argument rests on real evidence rather than memory, and they protect you: a clean reference list is much harder to challenge than a vague one. Most marks lost on referencing are not lost on difficult sources. They are lost on small, repeated slips — a missing year, a swapped initial, a title in the wrong case — that a quick tool pass catches before submission.
How to use it
- Paste quotes, one per line.
- Paste sources: Source name | passage (one per line).
- Read each quote’s best match and score.
Worked example
Quote ‘filters failed in week two’ against sources ‘Patel | the filters failed in week two of the trial’ and ‘Lee | costs rose sharply’ matches Patel at 100% word overlap and Lee at 0%. The score tells you the match is strong, not just first.
Tips for good results
Match quotes before you finalise source names. Renaming sources after matching breaks the audit trail.
Work from the source itself, not from another paper’s copy of it. And keep one style for the whole list: a single mixed entry undermines an otherwise perfect bibliography.
Honest limits
Matching is word-overlap only: paraphrases, translations and quotes with heavy editing score low even when they are genuine. A low score means ‘check by hand’, not ‘wrong’. The tool never judges whether a quote is accurate — only which pasted passage it resembles most.
Common mistakes to avoid
Common mistakes to avoid: copying a reference from another paper without checking it against the original, trusting a PDF filename for the title or year, and mixing two styles in one list. Each of these looks harmless alone and careless together. Run the tool, read its output once, and compare it with the source itself before you paste it into your document.
Before you submit
Run through this short check before you submit: is every author name spelled as it appears on the source, is every year present and correct, and does every in-text citation have a matching entry in your reference list? Read the list once from top to bottom rather than skimming it. Most referencing errors are found in that single slow read, and fixing them there is far cheaper than fixing them after a reviewer finds them. If one entry still looks odd after that read, check it against the original source before you change anything else.
Frequently asked questions
Is this tool really free?
Yes. It runs in your browser on this page, with no account and no payment. Nothing you paste leaves your computer.
Do I still need to check the result?
Yes, once. Tools apply rules; they cannot verify facts about your source. Compare the output with the source itself before submitting.
Can I use the output in my paper?
Yes. The output is a formatted reference or analysis for your own work. Keep the source’s facts accurate and the formatting consistent across your list.
What if the tool’s output differs from my style guide?
Trust the style guide. Tools encode the common rules of a style; your university or journal’s own sheet wins every disagreement. Use the tool to do the routine work, then apply the local rule where it differs.
Also available in Spanish: Comparador de Citas Textuales de Fuentes – Compara Citas con Fuentes por Similitud Gratis.