Citation Generator (APA, MLA, Chicago)
Enter a book, article or web page and get the reference in APA, MLA or Chicago style
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Enter the details of a book, journal article, web page or other source to get its reference entry and in-text citation in APA, MLA, Chicago or Harvard style.
How to use
- Choose the "Citation style" and one of eight "Source type" options, such as book, journal article, web page or thesis.
- Enter each author's given and family name under "Authors", then the title, year, publisher or journal details and URL from the source.
- Check the "Reference entry" and "In the text" results, then press "Copy with italics" or "Copy as plain text".
- For several sources, press "Add to list" for each and use "Copy all with italics" to paste the whole list.
How it works
- Styles: APA 7th edition, MLA 9th edition, Chicago 17th (notes and bibliography, and author-date) and Harvard (Cite Them Right 13th ed.), each with its own rules for et al. and title capitals.
- The page has no server, so it cannot look up a URL or DOI. "Copy with italics" keeps italics and the hanging indent in a word processor.
- For Korean, Chinese or Japanese names, turn on "Keep author names as typed" so names are not reordered or shortened to initials.
- The list is sorted alphabetically and saved in this browser on this device. Check the result against your instructor's or journal's rules.
Questions and answers
- What is the difference between APA and MLA?
- APA puts the year in parentheses after the author and writes titles in sentence case. MLA puts the date later in the entry and capitalizes all major words of a title. Changing the style redraws the whole list.
- When do you use et al.?
- In APA 7 in-text citations and in MLA 9 from three authors, and in Chicago 17 notes from four. An APA reference list names up to 20 authors.
- How do I cite a website in APA?
- Choose "Web page" and enter the author, date, title, website name and URL. For a page without a date, enter the "Date accessed"; it appears when the style asks for it.
- Can it create a citation from a DOI?
- No. There is no automatic lookup; type the author, title, volume, issue and pages from the source.