diff --git a/lib/ext/Cite/index.js b/lib/ext/Cite/index.js
index e3a03f3fb..42251989a 100644
--- a/lib/ext/Cite/index.js
+++ b/lib/ext/Cite/index.js
@@ -5,6 +5,8 @@
 
 'use strict';
 
+var domino = require('domino');
+
 var ParsoidExtApi = module.parent.require('./extapi.js').versionCheck('^0.7.1');
 var Util = ParsoidExtApi.Util;
 var DU = ParsoidExtApi.DOMUtils;
@@ -41,7 +43,6 @@ function hasRef(node) {
 		}
 		c = c.nextSibling;
 	}
-
 	return false;
 }
 
@@ -303,6 +304,8 @@ function References(cite) {
 	this.cite = cite;
 }
 
+var dummyDoc = domino.createDocument();
+
 /**
  * Sanitize the references tag and convert it into a meta-token
  */
@@ -321,9 +324,13 @@ References.prototype.tokenHandler = function(manager, pipelineOpts, refsTok, cb)
 	// token so that the dom post processor can generate
 	// and emit references at this point in the DOM.
 	var emitReferencesFragment = function(toks, refsBody) {
-		var olHTML = "<ol class='mw-references'" +
-			" typeof='mw:Extension/references'" +
-			" about='" + referencesId + "'" + ">" + (refsBody || "") + "</ol>";
+		var dummyOl = dummyDoc.createElement('ol');
+		DU.addAttributes(dummyOl, {
+			'class': 'mw-references references',
+			typeof: 'mw:Extension/references',
+			about: referencesId,
+		});
+		dummyOl.innerHTML = refsBody || '';
 		var olProcessor = function(ol) {
 			var dp = DU.getDataParsoid(ol);
 			dp.src = refsTok.getAttribute('source');
@@ -337,7 +344,7 @@ References.prototype.tokenHandler = function(manager, pipelineOpts, refsTok, cb)
 			tokens: DU.buildDOMFragmentTokens(
 				manager.env,
 				refsTok,
-				olHTML,
+				dummyOl.outerHTML,
 				olProcessor,
 				// The <ol> HTML above is wrapper HTML added on and doesn't
 				// have any DSR on it. We want DSR added to it.
@@ -530,7 +537,7 @@ References.prototype.insertMissingReferencesIntoDOM = function(refsData, node) {
 		var ol = doc.createElement('ol');
 		var dp = DU.getDataParsoid(ol);
 		DU.addAttributes(ol, {
-			'class': 'mw-references',
+			'class': 'mw-references references',
 			typeof: 'mw:Extension/references',
 			about: env.newAboutId(),
 		});