CiteGrab — Quick Citation & Reference Manager

What the browser extension reads, stores, and never does with your data — explained plainly, with nothing left implied.

Last updated: July 2026

The short version

Everything CiteGrab saves stays on your own device — there is no CiteGrab server
It reads the page you have open only while the popup is open, never in the background
The only network request it ever makes is an optional, keyless lookup to CrossRef's public DOI registry
No accounts, no tracking, no ads, no analytics, nothing sold or shared

What CiteGrab reads

When you open the CiteGrab popup on a webpage, it reads metadata already present in that page's own HTML — meta tags, JSON-LD structured data, and academic citation_* tags. This happens only while the popup is open, and only for the tab you're actively viewing.

CiteGrab does not run in the background, does not track your browsing, and does not read pages you haven't opened the popup on.

What CiteGrab stores

Everything below is saved using the browser's local extension storage, on your own device only:

Projects — names and sources you've explicitly added to a citation project
History — titles and URLs of pages you've generated citations for (capped at 50, deletable anytime)
Theme preference — dark or light mode

None of this is uploaded anywhere. There is no CiteGrab server. Uninstalling the extension deletes all of it.

The one network request CiteGrab can make

If a page's DOI is detected but its journal or book title, volume, issue, or page numbers aren't in the page's own metadata, CiteGrab automatically looks that up using the DOI — a public identifier, not personal data — via CrossRef's free, keyless public metadata registry, the same organization publishers themselves register DOIs with.

This only happens for pages where a DOI is present and the details are genuinely missing. It never runs in the background or on pages you haven't opened the popup for. This is the only network request CiteGrab ever makes. A "Refresh details from DOI" button is also available if you want to re-trigger it manually.

What CiteGrab never does

No accounts, no sign-in, no tracking, no analytics
No ads, no selling or sharing of data with anyone
No access to your browsing history
No background network requests

Permissions explained

activeTab / scripting — Read metadata from the page you have open, only while the popup is open
storage — Save projects, history, and theme preference locally on your device
downloads — Used only when you click "Download PDF" on a page that links to one
host_permissions for api.crossref.org — Used only for the optional DOI lookup described above

Questions

CiteGrab is a free tool from SmallStudyTools.com. For questions about this policy, reach out through the contact details on that site.