MicroTools Hub

Citation Generator (APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago)

Enter a source once and see it in APA 7, MLA 9 or Chicago (notes-bibliography or author-date), with italics ready to paste into your document. Look up a DOI or ISBN to fill the form, then correct anything by hand. Missing details are flagged, never invented. Add sources to a bibliography that sorts itself, flags possible duplicates, adds 2020a and 2020b style letters when needed, and exports to BibTeX, RIS or CSV. Citations follow common style rules, so check them against your assignment.

Typing and formatting happen in your browser. A DOI or ISBN lookup sends only that number from your browser to Crossref or Open Library, which also see your IP address like any website you visit. Saving is optional and stays on this device.

Lookups send only the DOI or ISBN you typed, from your browser, to Crossref or Open Library, which also see your IP address like any website you visit. Web pages cannot be looked up automatically, so enter their details below.

Source details

APA uses sentence case for titles of articles and books (only the first word and proper nouns capitalized). The tool never changes your title.

One per line or separated by semicolons, as “Family, Given”. For an organization, enter just its name.

For example 436–444.

Starts with https://

Keep your bibliography

Saving is optional and stays in this browser; nothing is sent to a server.

How it works

  1. Choose the source type and the style.
  2. Optionally look up a DOI or ISBN, then review every field.
  3. Fill in or correct the details. Warnings tell you what is missing or looks wrong.
  4. Copy the reference (with italics if you like) and the in-text citation or footnote.
  5. Add the source to your bibliography to sort, check for duplicates and export the whole list.

Options explained

Source types
Journal article, book, web page, report, and thesis or dissertation, each with its own fields.
Chicago variants
Notes and bibliography gives a bibliography entry and a full footnote. Author-date puts the year after the author and gives a parenthetical citation.
Copy with italics
Puts formatted text on the clipboard so journal and book titles stay italic when pasted into Word or Google Docs.
Export
BibTeX, RIS, CSV, plain text, or HTML with a hanging indent.

How the result is worked out

  • Formatting is deterministic: fixed rules for author names, punctuation, capitalization of the fields you supply and field order for each style and source type.
  • The tool never changes your title's capitalization or fills in missing authors, dates or publishers.
  • In APA and Chicago author-date, one author's works from the same year get letters after the year, in title order.

Example

LeCun, Yann and Bengio, Yoshua, “Deep learning”, Nature 521(7553), 436–444, 2015 becomes, in APA 7: LeCun, Y., & Bengio, Y. (2015). Deep learning. Nature, 521(7553), 436–444. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature14539, with the journal and volume in italics.

Tips for better results

  • Prefer a DOI when the source has one. It is the most reliable way to fetch complete details.
  • Read every fetched field. Metadata can be incomplete, misspelled or wrongly capitalized.
  • Fill in any field flagged as missing. The tool never guesses authors, dates or publishers.
  • Check the formatted result against your institution's current style guidance.

Limitations

  • Covers common student cases, not every source type (no chapters, conference papers, videos or social media).
  • Chicago entries omit the place of publication. APA, MLA and Chicago rules change between editions, so check your style guide.
  • Web pages cannot be looked up automatically. Enter their details by hand.
  • Lookup results can contain mistakes. Always compare with the source.

Guides that go with this tool

Frequently asked questions

Can I trust an auto-filled citation?

Treat it as a draft. Lookup services can have errors, so check the title, authors, year and pages against the source.

Does it support other styles such as Harvard or IEEE?

Not yet. It supports APA 7, MLA 9 and two Chicago variants.

What happens when there is no author?

The title moves to the author position in the way each style requires, and the tool flags the missing author.

Can I export to Zotero or another manager?

Yes, through BibTeX or RIS files, which most reference managers can import.

Is my bibliography stored?

Only if you choose Save on this device. It is never uploaded.

Related tools