diff --git a/src/js/components/navigator.js b/src/js/components/navigator.js
index 84bcaeb75..de8b14743 100644
--- a/src/js/components/navigator.js
+++ b/src/js/components/navigator.js
@@ -97,6 +97,9 @@ define(['underscore',
               { trigger: transition.trigger || false, replace: replace }
           );
         }
+
+        //clear any metadata added to head on the previous page
+        $("head").find("meta[data-highwire]").remove();
       },
 
       handleMissingTransition: function() {
diff --git a/src/js/widgets/abstract/templates/metadata_template.html b/src/js/widgets/abstract/templates/metadata_template.html
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..6f2d46865
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/js/widgets/abstract/templates/metadata_template.html
@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+<meta name="citation_title" content="{{title}}" data-highwire="true">
+{{#each author}}
+    <meta name="citation_author" content="{{this}}" data-highwire="true">
+{{/each}}
+{{#if pubdate}}
+    <meta name="citation_publication_date" content="{{pubdate}}" data-highwire="true">
+{{/if}}
+{{#if pub}}
+    <meta name="citation_journal_title" content="{{pub}}" data-highwire="true">
+{{/if}}
+{{#if volume}}
+    <meta name="citation_volume" content="{{volume}}" data-highwire="true">
+{{/if}}
+{{#if issue}}
+<meta name="citation_issue" content="{{issue}}" data-highwire="true">
+{{/if}}
+{{#if doi}}
+<meta name="citation_doi" content="{{doi}}" data-highwire="true">
+{{/if}}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/src/js/widgets/abstract/widget.js b/src/js/widgets/abstract/widget.js
index 6602f35f2..3c34ddf15 100644
--- a/src/js/widgets/abstract/widget.js
+++ b/src/js/widgets/abstract/widget.js
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ define([
     'cache',
     'js/widgets/base/base_widget',
     'hbs!./templates/abstract_template',
+    'hbs!./templates/metadata_template',
     'js/components/api_query',
     'js/mixins/link_generator_mixin',
     'js/mixins/papers_utils',
@@ -23,6 +24,7 @@ define([
     Cache,
     BaseWidget,
     abstractTemplate,
+    metadataTemplate,
     ApiQuery,
     LinkGeneratorMixin,
     PapersUtils,
@@ -81,6 +83,7 @@ define([
           hasAffiliation: hasAffiliation,
           abstract: doc.abstract,
           title: title,
+          author : doc.author,
           authorAff: authorAff,
           authorAffExtra: authorAffExtra,
           hasMoreAuthors: authorAffExtra.length,
@@ -152,7 +155,14 @@ define([
 
       onRender : function(){
         this.$(".icon-help").popover({trigger : "hover", placement : "right", html :true});
+
         if (MathJax) MathJax.Hub.Queue(["Typeset", MathJax.Hub, this.el]);
+
+        $("head").append(metadataTemplate(this.model.toJSON()));
+        var ev = document.createEvent('HTMLEvents');
+        ev.initEvent('ZoteroItemUpdated', true, true);
+        document.dispatchEvent(ev);
+
       }
 
     });
diff --git a/test/mocha/js/widgets/abstract_widget.spec.js b/test/mocha/js/widgets/abstract_widget.spec.js
index 1b18590d3..740df3b47 100644
--- a/test/mocha/js/widgets/abstract_widget.spec.js
+++ b/test/mocha/js/widgets/abstract_widget.spec.js
@@ -129,6 +129,56 @@ define(['backbone', 'marionette', 'jquery', 'js/widgets/abstract/widget',
 
       });
 
+      it("should populate the document head with  highwire-style metatags + trigger events to inform citation managers of update", function(){
+        var aw = new AbstractWidget();
+        aw.activate(minsub.beehive.getHardenedInstance());
+        minsub.publish(minsub.DISPLAY_DOCUMENTS, minsub.createQuery({'q': 'bibcode:foo'}));
+        var $w = aw.render().$el;
+        $("#test").append($w);
+        $("head [data-highwire]").remove();
+
+
+        //check that bbb fired the correct events to contact reference manager
+        var fired = false;
+        document.addEventListener('ZoteroItemUpdated', function(){fired = true}, false);
+
+        expect(fired).to.be.false;
+
+        // normally the query comes back with the __show parameter, but in the test we'll help it
+        aw.model.set(aw._docs['foo']);
+
+        expect(fired).to.be.true;
+
+        expect(
+            $("head [data-highwire]")
+            .map(function(ind, el){return {name : el.name, content : el.content} })
+            .get()
+        ).to.eql([
+          {
+            "name": "citation_title",
+            "content": "Planetary Ephemerides"
+          },
+          {
+            "name": "citation_author",
+            "content": "Lieske, J. H."
+          },
+          {
+            "name": "citation_author",
+            "content": "Standish, E. M."
+          },
+          {
+            "name": "citation_publication_date",
+            "content": "1981-00-00"
+          },
+          {
+            "name": "citation_journal_title",
+            "content": "IAU Colloq. 56: Reference Coordinate Systems for Earth Dynamics"
+          }
+        ]);
+
+
+      });
+
 
     });