Citation Generator
Fill in the fields you have and get a ready-to-paste APA, MLA, or Chicago reference. Runs entirely in your browser — no server, no sign-up.
About this tool
The Citation Generator turns the details of a source into a correctly formatted reference in APA 7th, MLA 9th, Chicago 17th, or Harvard (author-date) style. Type in whatever fields you have — author, title, year, journal or website name, volume, issue, pages, URL, or DOI — pick a style, and copy the result.
Everything runs locally in your browser: no upload, no account, and your references never leave your device.
How it works
- Authors — separate multiple authors with a semicolon (
;) or the wordand. Write each name asFamily, GivenorGiven Family. A single token with no space (for exampleUNESCO) is treated as an organization. - Container — the larger work the source appears in: the journal name for an article, the website name for a web page, or the book/anthology title for a chapter. Leave it blank for a standalone work such as a whole book, and add a publisher instead.
- DOI vs URL — a DOI is preferred when present; the tool adds the
https://doi.org/prefix for you. - Style differences — APA uses author initials and sentence-case titles; MLA and Chicago use full given names and title-case headings, quote the title of a part-of-a-larger-work, and order the volume/issue/pages differently. The generator applies each style's conventions automatically.
Notes
Output is plain text, so the italics the styles call for (journal and book titles) are not rendered — apply them yourself after pasting. The tool formats one source at a time and does not look up or invent missing details.
FAQ
How do I enter multiple authors, or an organization as author?
Separate authors with a semicolon (Smith, Jane; Doe, John) or the word and; each name can be written Family, Given or Given Family. A single token with no space — like UNESCO or WHO — is treated as an organizational author and kept as-is.
What happens if my source has no publication year?
Leave the year blank. APA style then prints (n.d.) for "no date", and the other styles simply omit the year rather than inventing one.
I have both a DOI and a URL — which should I fill in?
Enter both if you like: when a DOI is present it takes precedence over the URL, and the tool adds the https://doi.org/ prefix automatically, so you can paste the bare DOI (like 10.1000/182).
Why isn't the journal title in italics?
The citation is produced as plain text so it pastes cleanly anywhere. Styles like APA and MLA do call for italics on journal and book titles — add those in your word processor after pasting.
Developer & Automation Access
Run it from the terminal
Same engine as this page, headless — via the gizza CLI:
gizza tool citation-generator 'style=apa'New to the CLI? Get gizza →
Open it by URL
Pre-fill and auto-run this tool with query parameters — the names match the API/CLI:
https://gizza.ai/tools/citation-generator/?style=apa&title=On%20the%20Nature%20of%20Things&authors=Doe%2C%20Jane%3B%20Smith%2C%20John&year=2021&container=Journal%20of%20Studies&publisher=Penguin&volume=12&issue=3&pages=45-67&url=https%3A%2F%2Fexample.com%2Farticle&doi=10.1000%2Fxyz123&accessed=12%20Mar.%202024Machine-readable descriptor: tool.json — title + parameters JSON Schema for agents.