How to cite an AI or engine search

Bluebook (22d ed.) citation format · B18 / R18.3 · Internet & electronic

Example

Bing, “The Bluebook”, 6,050,000 results (May 22, 2024) (on file with the Harvard Law Review).

More examples

Each of these is checked against the rules on every change to the tool.

Westlaw, +“Disclosure Controls” +“SEC”, 1 result (Mar. 30, 2024) (on file with the Yale Law Journal) (filtered by “Cases”, “2d Cir.”).

What the citation needs

Required

On file with — Where a reader can get an unpublished or hard-to-find source: what follows “on file with” — “author”, or the library or journal holding it (R17.1).

When they apply

Search engine — The search engine, as it appears on the source.
Query — The query, as it appears on the source.
Filters applied (one per line) — The filters applied, as it appears on the source.
Number of results — The number of results, as it appears on the source.
Date — The date the rule for this source calls for, with the month abbreviated per T12 (“Nov. 24, 1978”).

In a brief and in a law review

The Bluebook sets citations two ways: the Bluepages for court documents and legal memoranda, the Whitepages for law review footnotes. Here is the first example above as each one prints it, in its typeface.

Court documents (Bluepages)

Bing, “The Bluebook”, 6,050,000 results (May 22, 2024) (on file with the Harvard Law Review).

Law review footnotes (Whitepages)

Bing, “The Bluebook”, 6,050,000 results (May 22, 2024) (on file with the Harvard Law Review).

The words are the same in both; only the typeface changes.

Common mistakes

Each of these is a citation the checker refuses, with what it says is wrong and the corrected form.

Wrong

Bing, “The Bluebook”, 6,050,000 results (May 22, 2024).

Why

Rule 18.3(b) requires a parenthetical stating where the saved PDF is stored.

Rule 18.3(b) requires citing where the saved PDF is stored.

Right

Bing, “The Bluebook”, 6,050,000 results (May 22, 2024) (on file with the Harvard Law Review).

Governing rules

B18 / R18.3

18 — the internet, electronic media & other nonprint resources.
18.3 — AI-generated content; outputs are archived, not linked.

Build this citation with the generator, check one you have already written, or paste a whole list of footnotes to check them in order.

Related source types

Internet & electronic: