How to Use the Researcher Tool in Microsoft Word for Citations

When writing a research paper, an essay, or a technical report, the most tedious aspect is often managing citations. Switching constantly between your web browser to find academic sources and your Word document to manually type out APA or MLA formatting breaks your concentration and invites formatting errors.

To streamline academic writing, Microsoft integrated a powerful feature directly into Word called the Researcher Tool. Powered by the Bing Knowledge Graph, this tool allows you to search the internet for reliable sources, extract quotes, and automatically generate perfectly formatted citations without ever leaving your document.

How to Access the Researcher Tool

The Researcher tool is built directly into the main ribbon of Microsoft Word, but it is specifically designed for Microsoft 365 subscribers.

1. Open your document in Microsoft Word.
2. Click the References tab located at the top of the screen.
3. In the “Research” group, click the Researcher icon.

A new sidebar will instantly open on the right side of your screen. This is your built-in academic search engine.

Searching for Reliable Sources

Unlike a standard Google search, the Researcher tool prioritizes structured, reliable information. It filters out random blogs and heavily favors academic journals, reputable news organizations, and encyclopedic entries.

1. In the Researcher sidebar, type your topic into the search bar (e.g., “Quantum Computing” or “French Revolution”) and press Enter.
2. Word will present an overview of the topic. Below the overview, you can filter the results by clicking categories such as Journals, Books, or Websites.
3. Click on any result to read the full text of the article directly inside the sidebar.

How to Insert Quotes and Automatic Citations

The true magic of the Researcher tool happens when you find a paragraph you want to use in your paper.

1. While reading an article in the sidebar, use your mouse to highlight a sentence or paragraph that you wish to quote.
2. A small pop-up menu will appear over the highlighted text. Click Add and Cite.

Microsoft Word will instantly copy the text, place it into your document wherever your cursor is located, wrap it in quotation marks, and automatically append a perfectly formatted in-text citation at the end of the sentence.

Managing Your Bibliography

If you prefer to paraphrase rather than quote directly, you can simply click the small plus (+) icon in the top right corner of any article in the Researcher sidebar. This adds the source to your document’s internal bibliography without pasting any text.

To ensure your citations match your professor’s requirements, you must set the correct academic style.

1. In the References tab, look for the “Citations & Bibliography” section.
2. Click the Style drop-down menu and select your required format (e.g., APA, MLA, Chicago).
3. When you reach the end of your paper, click the Bibliography button in the same section, and select a layout. Word will instantly generate a complete, alphabetically sorted Works Cited page using all the sources you gathered through the Researcher tool.