Writing is only half the battle with academic papers. Essayist handles the other part—wrangling the bibliography and ensuring everything is formatted to perfection.

What we love: How Essayist simplifies a usually tedious process. Search for books and journals directly in the app or manually enter magazine and newspaper articles, encyclopedia entries, websites, and more. Adding inline citations couldn’t be easier—just type an open parenthesis and select from the works you’ve added to your bibliography.

Quick tip: Need to add an appendix (or three) to your document? Tap the gear icon, then tap Manage Extra Sections.

Meet the creator: Erin Guest and Till Konitzer are self-taught coders in Vancouver, British Columbia. They developed the app while Konitzer was writing his thesis and couldn’t find an app that suited his needs. His thesis is featured in the screenshots.