A method for handling bibliographic citations within a document is disclosed. The method involves providing a user access to a publication list through a word processing application. The publication list has bibliographic citation data the publications in the publication list. Upon command from a user, a bibliographic citation to a selected publication in the publication list is inserted into a document displayed by the word processing application. The bibliographic citation is inserted as a non-editable text unit. The bibliographic citation in the document is updated with an edited bibliographic citation when the bibliographic citation data for the selected publication is edited.