Citation Generator
Seven citation styles from one form — autofill from a DOI or ISBN and build your list.
Fill in from a DOI or ISBN
A DOI is looked up at doi.org and an ISBN at Open Library, straight from your browser. Or fill in the form below — that works offline.
Source
For short notes and in-text citations of works without an author.
Style settings
Citation
References
About the Citation Generator
Describe a source once and get its reference-list entry and in-text citation in APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago 18 (notes and bibliography, or author-date), Harvard (Cite Them Right), IEEE or Vancouver. Switch the style at any time and everything is reformatted — handy when a journal or a module uses a different style from the last one.
Paste a DOI or an ISBN to fill in the form from doi.org or Open Library, or type the details yourself for journal articles, books, chapters, web pages, news articles, reports, theses, videos, data sets and software. Add each source to your bibliography, which this browser keeps for you, and copy it with its italics into Word or Google Docs, download it as an .rtf or .txt file, or export it as BibTeX or RIS for Zotero, Mendeley, EndNote or LaTeX.
How to use it
- Choose the citation style your instructor or journal asks for.
- Paste a DOI (for example
10.1037/ppm0000185) or an ISBN and press Look up — or choose the type of source and fill in the form. - Check every field against the source itself and read the checks under the citation: library records are often incomplete.
- Type the page you are quoting into Page or location to get it in the in-text citation, then Copy the entry or the citation.
- Press Add to bibliography for each source. Copy the whole list, download it for Word (.rtf), or export BibTeX or RIS.
Examples
Journal article · DOI 10.1037/ppm0000185
Grady, J. S., Her, M., Moreno, G., Perez, C., & Yelinek, J. (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, p. 210). The journal name and volume are italic in the tool.
The same article
[1] J. S. Grady, M. Her, G. Moreno, C. Perez, and J. Yelinek, “Emotions in storybooks: A comparison of storybooks that represent ethnic and racial groups in the United States,” Psychology of Popular Media Culture, vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 207–217, 2019, doi: 10.1037/ppm0000185.
In-text: [1]. IEEE abbreviates journal names; type the abbreviation if your journal wants it.
The same article
1. Grady JS, Her M, Moreno G, Perez C, Yelinek J. Emotions in storybooks: A comparison of storybooks that represent ethnic and racial groups in the United States. Psychology of Popular Media Culture. 2019;8(3):207-17. doi:10.1037/ppm0000185
Page ranges drop repeated digits (207-17), as Citing Medicine does.
The same article
Grady, Jacob S., et al. “Emotions in Storybooks: A Comparison of Storybooks That Represent Ethnic and Racial Groups in the United States.” Psychology of Popular Media Culture, vol. 8, no. 3, 2019, pp. 207–17, https://doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000185.
Common uses
- Reference lists for essays, theses and journal submissions in whichever style is required.
- Re-formatting an existing list when a journal or module asks for a different style.
- Turning DOIs from database searches into finished references.
- Moving references into Zotero, Mendeley or LaTeX with the RIS and BibTeX exports.
The styles and the rules they follow
- APA 7th edition — Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 7th ed. (2020).
- MLA 9th edition — MLA Handbook, 9th ed. (2021).
- Chicago 18th edition — The Chicago Manual of Style, 18th ed. (2024): notes and bibliography (full note, short note, bibliography entry) or author-date.
- Harvard — Cite Them Right (Pears and Shields, 13th ed.), the version many UK universities use, with settings for local variations.
- IEEE — the IEEE Reference Guide: authors as initials and surname (up to six, then et al.), titles in quotation marks, “vol.”, “no.”, “pp.”, abbreviated months and “doi:”; references are numbered [1], [2] … in the order you cite them.
- Vancouver — Patrias K., Citing Medicine, 2nd ed. (National Library of Medicine): surnames with initials and no full stops, the first six authors then “et al.” (as the ICMJE recommendations ask; Citing Medicine also allows listing every author), year;volume(issue):pages, “[Internet]”, “[cited …]” and “Available from:” for online sources, numbered in citation order.
The APA, MLA, Chicago and Harvard entries are made by the same formatters as MySmartCoPilot’s single-style generators, so the results match those pages exactly.
Autofill from a DOI or ISBN
- DOI: your browser asks doi.org for the record in CSL-JSON, a standard citation format; doi.org forwards the request to the agency that registered the DOI (Crossref for most journals and books, DataCite for many data sets). A doi.org link or a publisher link that contains a DOI also works.
- ISBN: the check digit is verified first, then Open Library, a free catalogue edited by volunteers, is asked for the book. Its records can be incomplete or wrong, so compare them with the title page.
Only the DOI or ISBN you type is sent, without cookies. Web pages cannot be looked up here: choose Web page and fill in the title, website and address.
Your bibliography and exports
The list is kept in this browser (up to 250 sources) until you clear it, and it is reformatted when you change the style. APA, MLA, Chicago and Harvard sort it alphabetically (the author-date styles add a, b, c after the year to tell apart works by the same author in the same year); IEEE and Vancouver number it in the order of the list, which you can change with the arrows.
- Copy list pastes with italics and hanging indents into Word, Google Docs and most e-mail programs.
- Word (.rtf) opens in Word, LibreOffice and Google Docs with the same formatting.
- BibTeX (.bib) for LaTeX and BibTeX/Biber; RIS for importing into Zotero, Mendeley, EndNote and RefWorks.
Limitations
- Always check the result against your institution’s or journal’s guide: many have local variations, especially for Harvard and Vancouver.
- Journal names are not abbreviated automatically for IEEE and Vancouver; type the abbreviation your journal or the NLM Catalog gives.
- IEEE and Vancouver entries for videos, data sets and software follow the general pattern for online sources; the tool says so under the citation.
- Autofill works for DOIs and ISBNs only, and only while you are online; library records can be incomplete.
- The bibliography is stored in this browser only — download or export it to keep a copy or to move to another device.
Privacy
The form and your bibliography stay in this browser: the list is kept in this browser’s local storage on this device until you clear it. Only a DOI or ISBN that you choose to look up is sent — to doi.org (and the registration agency it forwards to) or to Open Library — without cookies or a referrer.
Frequently asked questions
Which citation style should I use?
The one your instructor, department or journal names. Roughly: APA in psychology, education and social sciences; MLA in literature and languages; Chicago in history and the humanities; Harvard at many UK and Australian universities; IEEE in engineering and computer science; Vancouver in medicine and health sciences.
Are the citations correct?
They follow the published rules listed above, and the formatters are tested against published examples (APA’s reference examples, the MLA Style Center, Chicago’s citation quick guides, guides that follow Cite Them Right, and the IEEE Reference Guide’s and Citing Medicine’s own examples). The result is only as good as the details entered, so check the authors, title, dates and pages against the source, and read the checks shown under the citation.
What do I do with the BibTeX or RIS file?
In Zotero, Mendeley or EndNote choose Import and pick the .ris file. In LaTeX, add the .bib file to your project and cite with \cite{key}; the keys look like grady2019emotions.
Is my bibliography stored online?
No. It is kept only in this browser on this device. Autofill sends just the DOI or ISBN you look up to doi.org or Open Library.
How do I cite a page or a quotation?
Type the page (or paragraph, or a time such as 1:25 for a video) into Page or location. It appears in the in-text citation or note, for example (Grady et al., 2019, p. 210) in APA or [1, p. 210] in IEEE.
How do I cite a source with no author?
Leave the authors empty. Each style then starts the entry with the title (or, for some styles and web pages, the organisation that published it), and the checks explain what the style does.