For Students
Use it when writing assignments, essays, dissertations, lab reports, and research papers. It helps create the reference list or bibliography your school asks for.
AI Tools - bibliography builder
Citation Generator
Build perfect citations and full bibliographies in APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago, Harvard, IEEE, Vancouver, AMA, Nature, or CSE — for books, journal articles, websites, videos, podcasts, theses, and more. Auto-fill from a DOI or ISBN, or fill the form manually. Everything runs in your browser using the open-source CiteProc engine and the official Citation Style Language. No signup. No upload. No tracking. Build a bibliography of any length and export as text, HTML, RTF, or BibTeX.
Why Use This Citation Generator?
A citation generator helps you give proper credit to books, websites, journal articles, videos, podcasts, reports, and other sources you used in your work. Instead of manually memorizing APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, IEEE, or Vancouver rules, you enter the source details once and the tool formats the citation for you.
For Researchers
Use it to build a clean bibliography from journal articles, DOI links, conference papers, datasets, books, and reports before submitting or sharing work.
For Writers
Use it when citing statistics, web pages, books, videos, interviews, or public reports in blogs, articles, white papers, newsletters, and documentation.
Simple example: If you used a journal article in your essay, choose Journal article, enter the title, author, journal name, year, volume, pages, and DOI, then choose APA 7 or the style your teacher requested. The tool gives you both the in-text citation and the full reference entry.
How To Use This Tool
- Choose the source type. Pick Book, Journal article, Web page, Thesis, Video, Podcast, Dataset, Software, or another source type.
- Auto-fill or enter manually. Use DOI for journal articles, ISBN for books, URL lookup for web pages, or fill the fields yourself.
- Select the citation style. Choose APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago, Harvard, IEEE, Vancouver, AMA, Nature, or CSE.
- Check the preview. The page shows the in-text citation and the full reference. Missing required fields appear as warnings.
- Add to bibliography. Add each completed source to your project, then copy or download the full bibliography as text, HTML, RTF, BibTeX, CSL-JSON, or Word-compatible output.
Manual entry stays in your browser. DOI, ISBN, and URL lookup buttons are optional and clearly labeled because those lookups contact public metadata services.
External lookups disabled — manual entry only.
1. Pick a source type
2. Auto-fill source data
ⓘ DOI sends the DOI to Crossref. ISBN sends the ISBN to OpenLibrary. URL lookup sends the URL to AllOrigins.win as a best-effort proxy. Manual entry makes no network request.
3. Manual source fields
4. Choose style
Live preview
In-text citation
Reference entry
Citation engine loads lazily when preview starts.
Verify against Zotero
This tool uses citeproc-js data structures and official CSL styles from citationstyles.org — the same style language Zotero uses. Output should match Zotero for supported fields; please report discrepancies.
Supported citation sources
Use this bibliography generator for books, book chapters, journal articles, magazine articles, newspaper articles, web pages, blog posts, theses, reports, conference papers, films, broadcasts, songs, podcasts, interviews, legal cases, legislation, datasets, software, manuscripts, personal communications, encyclopedia entries, and maps.
What The Output Means
In-text citation is the short citation you place inside your writing, such as (Smith, 2024) or [1]. Reference entry is the full source detail that appears at the end of your document in a bibliography or references section.
Bibliography builder lets you collect many sources in one list. Add each source, then export the final list for your assignment, article, thesis, report, or research document.
Citation styles: © Citation Style Language project, used under CC-BY-SA. citeproc-js: MIT licensed. QA page: citation generator tests.
Frequently asked questions
Which citation styles does this tool support?
This citation generator supports APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago Author-Date, Chicago Notes and Bibliography, Harvard Cite Them Right, IEEE, Vancouver, AMA, Nature, and CSE. The bundled CSL files are local assets so the style list remains available even if a CDN is unreachable.
Is this as accurate as Zotero or Mendeley?
The tool uses official Citation Style Language files and is designed around the citeproc-js data model used by Zotero-class tools. When the browser can load the full engine, output should match Zotero closely; the local fallback keeps the page usable for common formats.
Does this tool work offline?
Manual citation entry, bibliography building, local preview, and exports work entirely in the browser after the page assets are loaded. DOI, ISBN, and URL enrichment are optional external lookups and can be disabled with the Block all external lookups switch.
Why does my citation look slightly different from another generator?
Citation generators can differ because they use different style versions, capitalization rules, and source metadata. Check names, dates, DOI, page ranges, and source type first because metadata quality usually causes the visible differences.
Can I import my Zotero library?
This page can download CSL-JSON, which Zotero and Mendeley can understand, but it does not yet import a full Zotero export file. You can manually add sources or use DOI and ISBN lookup for fast entry.
What's the difference between APA 6 and APA 7?
APA 7 updates author handling, DOI formatting, publisher location rules, and several online-source conventions. This tool targets APA 7, so DOI links are rendered as https://doi.org/... rather than older DOI label formats.
What's the difference between Chicago Author-Date and Notes & Bibliography?
Chicago Author-Date uses parenthetical in-text citations and an alphabetized reference list. Chicago Notes and Bibliography is built for footnotes or endnotes plus a bibliography, which is common in history and humanities writing.
Does this tool send my citation data to any server?
Manual entries stay in your browser and are saved only to localStorage on your device. DOI, ISBN, and URL lookup buttons are opt-in and clearly show which third-party service receives that identifier.
How do I cite a tweet, podcast, or YouTube video?
Use Web page for posts that primarily live at a URL, Broadcast or Podcast for audio episodes, and Film or Broadcast for video content. Add the title, creator, platform or container title, publication date, URL, and access date if the content may change.
Can I generate citations in non-English languages?
The current bundled locale is English (US), which covers the requested APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, IEEE, Vancouver, AMA, Nature, and CSE output. Additional CSL locale XML files can be added later and registered in citation-utils.js.