diff --git a/app/assets/stylesheets/pages/issuable.scss b/app/assets/stylesheets/pages/issuable.scss
index 55e834947d1..eae3590a189 100644
--- a/app/assets/stylesheets/pages/issuable.scss
+++ b/app/assets/stylesheets/pages/issuable.scss
@@ -105,8 +105,13 @@
       text-overflow: ellipsis;
     }
 
+    cite {
+      font-style: normal;
+    }
+
     button {
       float: right;
+      padding: 3px 5px;
     }
   }
 
diff --git a/app/views/shared/issuable/_sidebar.html.haml b/app/views/shared/issuable/_sidebar.html.haml
index 2299112bec7..9f4a7098ea2 100644
--- a/app/views/shared/issuable/_sidebar.html.haml
+++ b/app/views/shared/issuable/_sidebar.html.haml
@@ -69,15 +69,16 @@
             You're not receiving notifications from this thread.
           .subscribed{class: ( 'hidden' unless subscribed )}
             You're receiving notifications because you're subscribed to this thread.
+
     - project_ref = cross_project_reference(@project, issuable)
     .block
       .title
       .cross-project-reference
-        %span#cross-project-reference
+        %span
           Reference:
-          %a{href: '#', title:project_ref}
+          %cite{title: project_ref}
             = project_ref
-        = clipboard_button(clipboard_target: 'span#cross-project-reference')
+        = clipboard_button(clipboard_text: project_ref)
 
   :javascript
     new Subscription("#{toggle_subscription_path(issuable)}");