Bibliography Maker
Collect sources once and get the list in APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, IEEE or Vancouver.
Project
Projects are saved in this browser only. Use .bib or .ris to move a list to another device or reference manager.
Add a source
What the page says
Add several at once
Import BibTeX or RIS
Citation style
Source details
Your citation
Fill in the details or use autofill — the citation appears here as you type.
References
Saved in this browser only. “Copy list” keeps italics when you paste into Word or Google Docs.
In the text:
About the Bibliography Maker
Keep every source of an essay, thesis or paper in one project and get the reference list in the style you need — APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago 18, Harvard (Cite Them Right), IEEE, Vancouver or AMA 11 — switching style at any time without retyping anything. Add sources with the form, from a DOI, PubMed ID, ISBN or web address, several identifiers at once, or by importing a BibTeX or RIS file from Zotero, Mendeley, EndNote, Google Scholar or a library database.
The list follows each style’s order: alphabetical with hanging indents for the author-date styles, numbered in citation order for IEEE, Vancouver and AMA — or the order you choose. Possible duplicates are flagged, an annotated-bibliography mode adds a note under each entry, and the list copies into Word or Google Docs with its italics or downloads as .docx, .rtf, .txt, .bib or .ris. Projects are saved in this browser.
How to use it
- Name your project, or keep the first one. Create more with New — one per assignment.
- Add sources: paste a DOI, PMID, ISBN or web address into Add a source and check the form, or fill in the form yourself, then press Add to project. Add several at once looks up a list of identifiers; Import BibTeX or RIS reads a reference-manager export.
- Choose the citation style. Its settings, the order of the list and the in-text citations follow; numbered styles number the sources in the order shown.
- Fix anything the list flags: possible duplicates, and the checks under the citation when you Edit an entry.
- For an annotated bibliography tick Annotated bibliography and write a note under each entry. Then Copy list, or download Word (.docx), .rtf, .txt, .bib or .ris.
Examples
Journal article · Hyeyoung Kwon · American Journal of Sociology (abbreviated title Am. J. Sociol.), vol. 127, no. 6, pp. 1818–1859 · 2022 · DOI 10.1086/720277
APA 7: Kwon, H. (2022). Inclusion work: Children of immigrants claiming membership in everyday life. American Journal of Sociology, 127(6), 1818–1859. https://doi.org/10.1086/720277 IEEE: [1] H. Kwon, “Inclusion work: Children of immigrants claiming membership in everyday life,” Am. J. Sociol., vol. 127, no. 6, pp. 1818–1859, 2022, doi: 10.1086/720277.
Switching the style re-formats the whole project; the source is stored once. Without an abbreviated title, IEEE builds one from its word list (Amer. J. Sociol.).
@book{yu2020,
author = {Yu, Charles},
title = {Interior Chinatown},
publisher = {Pantheon Books},
year = {2020}
}MLA 9: Yu, Charles. Interior Chinatown. Pantheon Books, 2020.
LaTeX accents such as {\"o} and {\'e} become ö and é; braces that protect capitals are removed.
Book · Charles Yu · Interior Chinatown · Pantheon Books · 2020 · annotation “A satirical novel told as a screenplay.”
Yu, Charles. Interior Chinatown. Pantheon Books, 2020.
A satirical novel told as a screenplay.In the .docx and .rtf files the annotation is a paragraph indented half an inch, under its entry.
Common uses
- A reference list for an essay, dissertation or thesis that grows over weeks, kept in one project.
- Handing in the same sources in a different style — an APA draft for one course, IEEE or Vancouver for a journal.
- Turning a Zotero, Mendeley or EndNote export (BibTeX or RIS) into a formatted list in Word, or the other way round.
- Annotated bibliographies for literature reviews and research proposals.
Styles and the order of the list
- Author-date styles — APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago 18 (notes-bibliography or author-date) and Harvard (Cite Them Right) — sort the list alphabetically by author with hanging indents, add a, b… to works by the same authors in the same year, and in MLA replace a repeated author with three dashes. Their rules are those of the APA, MLA, Chicago and Harvard generators.
- Numbered styles — IEEE, Vancouver and AMA 11 — number the sources in the order you cite them: add them in that order or move them with Up and Down. Cite several references writes the in-text form for a group of numbers.
- Order overrides the style when you need to: alphabetical (some numbered styles number an alphabetical list) or citation order.
- Standards, patents, datasheets and conference papers keep their own form in IEEE, Vancouver and AMA; the author-date styles show standards, patents and datasheets in their report format and say so.
Adding and importing sources
- One identifier: a DOI (doi.org), a PMID (PubMed), an ISBN (Open Library) or a web address (read by MySmartCoPilot’s server); the details fill the form for you to check before adding.
- Several at once: up to 25 lines of DOIs, PMIDs, ISBNs or web addresses; each is looked up and added, and a line that fails says why. PubMed answers all PMIDs in one request; DOIs are fetched a few per second.
- BibTeX and RIS: paste or choose a .bib or .ris file of up to 2 MB. Entry types, names in every BibTeX form, @string abbreviations, month names, LaTeX accents and RIS tags are converted; annote (BibTeX) and N1 (RIS) notes become annotations. Sources already in the project can be skipped.
- Duplicates: an entry with the same DOI or PMID as an earlier one, a book with the same ISBN (in its 10- or 13-digit form), a page with the same address and title, or the same title, year and first author, is flagged in the list.
Exports and where projects are kept
Copy list puts the list on the clipboard as formatted text (italics and hanging indents in Word and Google Docs) and as plain text. Word (.docx) and .rtf give Times New Roman 12 pt with the style’s heading, hanging indents or a number column, double spacing for APA and MLA, and annotations under their entries. .bib and .ris move the project into a reference manager or LaTeX. Projects — up to 20, with up to 400 sources each — are saved in this browser’s storage only, never on a server: download a .bib or .ris copy to keep a backup or to move to another device.
Limitations
- Autofill and imported files are only as good as the records they come from: check each entry, especially names given in one piece and titles in the wrong case.
- Each style covers the common source types. Legal material, social-media posts, conference presentations in the author-date styles and other rare types need adjusting by hand, and the checks say when a type is shown in a near format.
- Projects live in this browser. Clearing site data, private windows and another device or browser do not have them — export .bib or .ris to keep a copy.
- Look-ups of web addresses use MySmartCoPilot’s server and have an hourly allowance; DOI, PMID and ISBN look-ups go straight to doi.org, PubMed and Open Library.
- Chicago notes (footnotes) are shown per source but the list is the bibliography; footnote numbering in your document is up to your word processor.
Privacy
Your projects, sources and annotations are saved only in this browser. Lookups send only the identifier or address you look up — to doi.org, PubMed and the NLM Catalog, Open Library, or MySmartCoPilot’s server for web addresses, which reads only each page’s head and does not store the page. BibTeX and RIS files are read in your browser and never uploaded.
Frequently asked questions
Can I change the citation style after adding sources?
Yes. Each source is stored once with all its details, and the whole list is formatted again in the style you pick — alphabetical for APA, MLA, Chicago and Harvard, numbered for IEEE, Vancouver and AMA.
How do I make an annotated bibliography?
Tick Annotated bibliography. An annotation box appears under each entry in the list and in the form; write a short summary and evaluation of each source. Copy and the .docx, .rtf and .txt downloads put each annotation as a paragraph under its entry, and the heading becomes “Annotated Bibliography”.
Can I import my Zotero or Mendeley library?
Export it (or a collection) as BibTeX or RIS, then use Import BibTeX or RIS. Up to 400 sources fit in a project. Fields that the styles do not use are not kept, so keep your reference manager as the main copy.
Is my bibliography saved?
Yes, in this browser, every time you change it. It is not uploaded anywhere, so it is not on your other devices: download a .bib or .ris file to move it or keep a backup.
Why is an entry marked as a possible duplicate?
Because it has the same DOI or PMID as an earlier entry, is a book with the same ISBN, or has the same title, year and first author. Check both and remove one, so each work appears once in your list.
Does the order of the list matter?
In the author-date styles the list is alphabetical, whatever order you add sources in. In IEEE, Vancouver and AMA the number of a source is its place in the list, which should be the order you first cite it — move entries with Up and Down, or choose another Order.