Inline citations are references to external sources directly embedded within the text itself. They serve multiple purposes, including providing evidence for claims, giving credit to original authors, and guiding readers to additional resources for further exploration.
We can use Markdown’s footnotes1 syntax to use inline citation in Markdown (.md) files.
Similar to how citations are used in academic writing, footnotes are a suitable method for referring to
links, books, papers, and other sources without disrupting the flow of the text.
This technique is applicable not only to GitHub README files but also to any static web generator (like Hugo2, Jekyll3) that supports markdown syntax.
Example of inline citation in Markdown syntax
Let’s consider an example where we want to cite both a blog post and a book inline using Markdown syntax. We can incorporate the citations like this:
SYCL[^shovon_2024] is an open industry standard that simplifies parallel programming[^reinders2021data] tasks.
**References**:
[^shovon_2024]: [Introduction to SYCL and DPC++](https://arshovon.com/blog/sycl-docker-interactive/)
[^reinders2021data]: Reinders, J., Ashbaugh, B., Brodman, J., Kinsner, M., Pennycook, J., & Tian, X. (2021). Data parallel C++: mastering DPC++ for programming of heterogeneous systems using C++ and SYCL (p. 548). Springer Nature.
Example citation in Markdown syntax:
SYCL4 is an open industry standard that simplifies parallel programming5 tasks.
References:
- Footnotes: Github docs [return]
- Hugo: The world’s fastest framework for building websites [return]
- Jekyll: Transform your plain text into static websites and blogs [return]
- Introduction to SYCL and DPC++ [return]
- Reinders, J., Ashbaugh, B., Brodman, J., Kinsner, M., Pennycook, J., & Tian, X. (2021). Data parallel C++: mastering DPC++ for programming of heterogeneous systems using C++ and SYCL (p. 548). Springer Nature. [return]
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