diff --git a/CHANGES b/CHANGES
index b265ba2c1..3d123f00d 100644
--- a/CHANGES
+++ b/CHANGES
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@ Bugs fixed
 * #4434: pure numbers as link targets produce warning
 * #4477: Build fails after building specific files
 * #4449: apidoc: include "empty" packages that contain modules
+* #3917: citation labels are tranformed to ellipsis
 
 Testing
 --------
diff --git a/sphinx/transforms/__init__.py b/sphinx/transforms/__init__.py
index acfff6a4d..ed3c19ba5 100644
--- a/sphinx/transforms/__init__.py
+++ b/sphinx/transforms/__init__.py
@@ -209,10 +209,15 @@ class CitationReferences(SphinxTransform):
 
     def apply(self):
         # type: () -> None
+        # mark citation labels as not smartquoted
+        for citnode in self.document.traverse(nodes.citation):
+            citnode[0]['support_smartquotes'] = False
+
         for citnode in self.document.traverse(nodes.citation_reference):
             cittext = citnode.astext()
             refnode = addnodes.pending_xref(cittext, refdomain='std', reftype='citation',
                                             reftarget=cittext, refwarn=True,
+                                            support_smartquotes=False,
                                             ids=citnode["ids"])
             refnode.source = citnode.source or citnode.parent.source
             refnode.line = citnode.line or citnode.parent.line
diff --git a/sphinx/util/nodes.py b/sphinx/util/nodes.py
index 97e5b7f30..569a4c7b3 100644
--- a/sphinx/util/nodes.py
+++ b/sphinx/util/nodes.py
@@ -380,6 +380,8 @@ def is_smartquotable(node):
     """Check the node is smart-quotable or not."""
     if isinstance(node.parent, NON_SMARTQUOTABLE_PARENT_NODES):
         return False
+    elif node.parent.get('support_smartquotes', None) is False:
+        return False
     elif getattr(node, 'support_smartquotes', None) is False:
         return False
     else: