NOTE: Please consider using citeproc-org instead of this hacky solution.

Org-ref-ox-hugo

Some overrides for org-ref to play nice with ox-hugo. For an example, you can take a look here.

You’ll need to require the elisp provided, and specify the citation formats you want for the md key. Here’s mine:

(add-to-list 'org-ref-formatted-citation-formats
             '("md"
               ("article" . "${author}, *${title}*, ${journal}, *${volume}(${number})*, ${pages} (${year}). ${doi}")
               ("inproceedings" . "${author}, *${title}*, In ${editor}, ${booktitle} (pp. ${pages}) (${year}). ${address}: ${publisher}.")
               ("book" . "${author}, *${title}* (${year}), ${address}: ${publisher}.")
               ("phdthesis" . "${author}, *${title}* (Doctoral dissertation) (${year}). ${school}, ${address}.")
               ("inbook" . "${author}, *${title}*, In ${editor} (Eds.), ${booktitle} (pp. ${pages}) (${year}). ${address}: ${publisher}.")
               ("incollection" . "${author}, *${title}*, In ${editor} (Eds.), ${booktitle} (pp. ${pages}) (${year}). ${address}: ${publisher}.")
               ("proceedings" . "${editor} (Eds.), _${booktitle}_ (${year}). ${address}: ${publisher}.")
               ("unpublished" . "${author}, *${title}* (${year}). Unpublished manuscript.")
               ("misc" . "${author} (${year}). *${title}*. Retrieved from [${howpublished}](${howpublished}). ${note}.")
               (nil . "${author}, *${title}* (${year}).")))

Caveats

This breaks pandoc markdown export functionality in org-ref.

Contributions/fixes welcome.