I always sort of read it to myself. I use parens within normal writing as an aside (for example, this one), so I put the part that you read within the brackets

I always sort of read it to myself. I use parens within normal writing as an aside (for example, this one), so I put the part that you read within the brackets and the reference in the parens. In plaintext you'd have a claim (and parens directing you to see the citation at citation.com). In hypertext you'd have a [claim](and a link to citation.com).