Fill in the source details, pick a style, and copy a formatted citation with the italics kept. Build a sorted reference list as you go.
For an organization (for example a government agency), type its full name in the last-name box and leave the first name empty. Leave all author boxes empty if there is no author.
Citations you add appear here, sorted alphabetically in the style you pick above.
Each style has its own rules for names, capitalization, punctuation and order, and this tool applies them with its own code. In APA 7th edition, authors appear as last name plus initials, the date follows in parentheses, and titles of articles, books and web pages use sentence case (only the first word, the first word after a colon and proper nouns are capitalized). Up to 20 authors are all listed; with 21 or more, the first 19 are listed, then an ellipsis and the final author. DOIs are written as https://doi.org/ links.
In MLA 9th edition, the first author is inverted (Last, First), two authors are joined with "and", and three or more are shortened to the first author plus "et al." Titles use title case, page and article titles go in quotation marks, and container titles such as websites and journals are italicized. Dates are written day month year with abbreviated months, and web addresses drop the http:// prefix. Chicago 17th edition (notes-bibliography system, bibliography entry) inverts only the first author, lists up to ten authors in full (with more than ten, the first seven followed by et al.), uses headline-style capitalization and includes the place of publication for books when you supply it.
Automatic capitalization can't tell a proper noun from an ordinary word. Words written with capitals inside them, such as acronyms (NASA) or names like McDonald, are left alone, but in sentence case other words are lowercased, so check that names of people, places and organizations are still capitalized. Untick Change title capitalization to keep the title exactly as you typed it.
Example (made-up source): a journal article by Maya R. Okafor and Liam Brandt from 2021 becomes, in APA, "Okafor, M. R., & Brandt, L. (2021). Tidal patterns and sleep: A field study in coastal towns. Journal of Imaginary Coastal Studies, 14(2), 101–118." In MLA the same article starts "Okafor, Maya R., and Liam Brandt." and puts the title in quotation marks.
Which citation style should I use?
Use the one your instructor, school or publisher asks for. APA is common in psychology, education and social sciences, MLA in English and the humanities, and Chicago in history and some other humanities fields.
Does the copied citation keep italics?
Yes, in most modern browsers the citation is copied as formatted text, so italics carry over when you paste into a word processor or online document. If your browser only allows plain text, the italics are lost and you will need to italicize those parts by hand.
What if a source has no author or no date?
Leave those fields empty. Each style handles it in its own way: APA moves the title to the front and uses "n.d." for no date, MLA starts with the title and leaves the date out, and Chicago starts with the title and uses an access date for undated web pages.
Is my reference list saved?
The list is kept in this browser's local storage so it is still here when you come back on the same device. It is never uploaded, and clearing your browser data removes it.
Does it create in-text citations or footnotes?
This tool makes the reference-list (bibliography) entry. In-text citations are short, usually the author's last name and year in APA, or the last name and page in MLA.