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Free Citation Generator
Paste a link, DOI or ISBN, or type the details, and get a correctly formatted citation in APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, AMA, IEEE or ACS, with the in-text citation and a reference list you can copy straight into your paper.
Citation style
APA 7th edition
Paste a link, DOI or ISBN, or fill in the details, and your citation appears here.
References (0)
Add citations to build your list. It's sorted for you alphabetically, and kept in this browser.
Always check citations against your instructor's requirements. Titles are kept as you type them.
How to cite a source
Every style needs the same core details: who made it (author), when (date), what it's called (title) and where it's from (website, journal, publisher, plus a link or DOI). Styles differ in the order, punctuation and what's in italics. Pick your style above and the generator handles that for you.
Which citation style should I use?
Use the style your instructor or journal asks for. Broadly: APA for psychology, education and social sciences; MLA for English and humanities; Chicago for history; Harvard is common in the UK and Australia; AMA for medicine; IEEE for engineering and computer science; ACS for chemistry.
Citing a website
For a web page, include the author (or the organization), the date it was published or updated, the page title, the website name and the URL. If there's no date, APA uses (n.d.) and MLA suggests adding the date you accessed it.
APA 7 examples
Journal article
Grady, J. S., Her, M., & Moreno, G. (2019). Emotions in storybooks: A comparison of storybooks that represent ethnic and racial groups in the United States. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 8(3), 207–217. https://doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000185
In text: (Grady et al., 2019)
Book
Jackson, L. M. (2019). The psychology of prejudice: From attitudes to social action (2nd ed.). American Psychological Association.
In text: (Jackson, 2019)
Web page
Bologna, C. (2019, October 31). Why some people with anxiety love watching horror movies. HuffPost. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/anxiety-love-watching-horror-movies_l_5d277587e4b02a5a5d57b59e
In text: (Bologna, 2019)
Citation Generator FAQs
Is this citation generator free?
Yes. It's free, with no sign-up, no ads and no limit on how many citations you make. Your reference list is kept in your browser so you can come back to it.
Can it fill in the details for me?
Yes. Paste a website link, a DOI (for journal articles) or an ISBN (for books), and it looks up the title, authors, date and publication details. You can edit anything before copying.
Are generated citations always right?
The format follows each style's official rules, but a citation is only as good as its details. Auto-filled details sometimes miss an author or date, so check them against the source, and check your instructor's requirements.
What's the difference between a reference list, works cited and a bibliography?
They're the list of sources at the end of a paper, named differently by each style: APA, AMA, IEEE and ACS call it References, MLA calls it Works Cited, Chicago calls it a Bibliography, and Harvard a Reference list.
Other citation styles
- APA Citation GeneratorAPA 7th edition references and in-text citations.
- MLA Citation GeneratorMLA 9 citations and Works Cited pages.
- Chicago Citation GeneratorChicago bibliography entries and footnotes.
- Harvard Citation GeneratorHarvard references in the Cite Them Right style.
- AMA Citation GeneratorAMA 11th edition for medicine and health.
- IEEE Citation GeneratorIEEE references for engineering and computing.
- ACS Citation GeneratorACS references for chemistry.
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