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Citation Generator

Build a properly formatted APA, MLA, or Chicago citation for a website, book, or journal article.

Publish date (optional)
Fill in the fields above to generate a citation.

This covers common cases for up to 3 authors per source. For organizational authors, sources with neither an author nor a date, or more than 3 authors, check your style guide (e.g. the Purdue OWL) for the specific rule — this tool doesn't cover every edge case. Everything is generated locally in your browser.

About this tool

Citation Generator builds a formatted reference for a book, article, website or other source in APA, MLA, Chicago or Harvard style. You fill in the details of the source and it assembles them in the right order with the right punctuation.

Citation styles are picky about commas, italics and ordering, and they are easy to get wrong by hand. Use the generator for a clean first version, then compare it against your school or journal guidelines.

How to use it

  1. Choose the citation style your school or publication asks for.
  2. Choose the type of source: for example book, journal article or website.
  3. Fill in the details: author, title, date, publisher or website, and web address where relevant.
  4. Copy the finished reference into your bibliography.

Example

Your lecturer wants a website cited in APA. Enter the author or organisation, the page title, the date, the site name and the web address, and the tool arranges them in APA order for your reference list.

Tips

  • The tool formats what you give it. Check that the details you typed are accurate and complete.
  • Italics are shown in the final document. If you paste into a word processor, check they came across.
  • Different editions of a style guide have small differences. When in doubt, follow your lecturer instructions.

Questions people ask

Which citation styles are supported?

APA, MLA, Chicago and Harvard.

Does it find the details of a source for me?

You enter the details yourself. It then formats them in your chosen style.

Is my bibliography saved?

Copy your references into your own document. Do not rely on the page to keep them.

Why does my reference look different from my lecturer example?

Departments sometimes adapt a style. Follow their instructions where they differ.