Citation Generator

How should I type the author’s name?

Type it exactly as you want it printed, for example “Okafor, N.” for APA. The tool does not convert “John Smith” to “Smith, J.” and it accepts only one author field, so for several authors type them all in that box in the form your style requires. MLA and Chicago add their own full stop after the name; a full stop you already typed is removed so you do not get “Okafor, N..”.

Why does my in-text citation show only one surname?

The in-text line takes the text before the first comma in the author box. “Okafor, N., & Lindqvist, P.” therefore gives (Okafor, 2021). Add the second author by hand. MLA shows the page field, or the word “page” if it is empty, and the Chicago line shows year and pages as (Okafor 2021, 45–67).

What appears when I leave fields blank?

Placeholders you must replace: “Author, A.” for the author, “[Title]”, “n.d.” for the year, “Journal Name”, “Channel Name”, “Publisher”, “Website Name” and “[URL]” where a style needs them. APA newspaper entries print the literal text “Month Day” after the year because there is no day field. Search the result for these before pasting.

When is the DOI used instead of the URL?

If the DOI box is filled, the entry prints https://doi.org/ plus the DOI for APA journals and websites, and for MLA and Chicago journals. Pasting a full doi.org link is fine; the prefix is stripped first. Book entries never print a URL or DOI, and YouTube entries use the URL box only.

How are volume and issue printed?

Enter them as 12(3). APA prints that as typed: 12(3). MLA splits it into “vol. 12, no. 3”, and Chicago prints “12, no. 3” before the year in brackets. Any other format, such as “12” alone, is used unchanged, so MLA shows “vol. 12”.

Which source types does it cover?

Website, book, journal article, newspaper article and YouTube video, in APA 7th, MLA 9th and Chicago 17th. Newspaper differs from website only in APA. There is no field for editors, translators, edition, chapters in edited books, publication days, or more than one container, and those sources need manual editing.

Does the output include italics and a hanging indent?

No. Titles that should be italic are wrapped in *asterisks*, and you apply italics in your word processor. The hanging indent, sentence case for article titles in APA, and title case for MLA and Chicago are also left to you because the tool prints your title as typed.

Is a generated citation guaranteed to be correct?

No. It follows fixed patterns and cannot know details such as a corporate author, a retracted article or an instructor’s preferences. Compare the result with the current style manual or your institution’s guide. The Chicago reference entry uses the notes-bibliography pattern while the in-text line is author-date, so choose one Chicago system and adapt accordingly.