diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index 6c1aedb7e..200aa1530 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 # pkgdown (development version)
 
+* `build_home()` now correctly escapes special HTML characters in the bibtex citation (#2022).
 * `build_articles()` now reports if you are missing alt-text for any images (#2357).
 * `check_pkgdown()` and `pkgdown_sitrep()` have been unified so that they both report on the same problems. They now only differ in the style of their output: `pkgdown_sitrep()` reports whether each category is ok or not ok, while `check_pkgdown()` errors on the first issue (#2463).
 * `build_site()` automatically runs `pkgdown_sitrep()` at the start of the process (#2380).
diff --git a/inst/BS3/templates/content-citation-authors.html b/inst/BS3/templates/content-citation-authors.html
index 5a40700e1..2ba7cf2c8 100644
--- a/inst/BS3/templates/content-citation-authors.html
+++ b/inst/BS3/templates/content-citation-authors.html
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ <h1 id="citation">{{#translate}}{{citation}}{{/translate}}</h1>
 
     {{#citations}}
     {{{html}}}
-    <pre>{{{bibtex}}}</pre>
+    <pre>{{bibtex}}</pre>
     {{/citations}}
 
   </div>
diff --git a/inst/BS5/templates/content-citation-authors.html b/inst/BS5/templates/content-citation-authors.html
index 805d86924..06a92899e 100644
--- a/inst/BS5/templates/content-citation-authors.html
+++ b/inst/BS5/templates/content-citation-authors.html
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ <h2 id="citation">{{#translate}}{{citation}}{{/translate}}</h2>
 
       {{#citations}}
       {{{html}}}
-      <pre>{{{bibtex}}}</pre>
+      <pre>{{bibtex}}</pre>
       {{/citations}}
     </div>
 
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test-build-home-authors.R b/tests/testthat/test-build-home-authors.R
index 99a75c814..0469b4f56 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/test-build-home-authors.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/test-build-home-authors.R
@@ -109,3 +109,27 @@ test_that("multiple citations all have HTML and BibTeX formats", {
   citations <- data_citations(path)
   expect_snapshot_output(citations)
 })
+
+test_that("bibtex is escaped", {
+  pkg <- local_pkgdown_site(meta = "
+    template:
+      bslib:
+        version: 5
+  ")
+  dir_create(path(pkg$src_path, "inst"))
+  write_lines(path = path(pkg$src_path, "inst", "CITATION"), c(
+    'citEntry(',
+    '  entry = "Article",',
+    '  title="test special HTML characters: <&>",',
+    '  author="x",',
+    '  journal="x",',
+    '  year="2017"',
+    ')'
+  ))
+  
+  suppressMessages(init_site(pkg))
+  suppressMessages(build_citation_authors(pkg))
+  html <- xml2::read_html(path(pkg$dst_path, "authors.html"))
+  
+  expect_match(xpath_text(html, "//pre"), "<&>", fixed = TRUE)
+})