Citation generator
Format a source in APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago, Harvard or IEEE.
Last, First — separate multiple authors with a semicolon
Without the https://doi.org/ prefix
APA 7
Lovelace, A., & Babbage, C. (1843). Notes on the Analytical Engine. Scientific Memoirs, 3, 666-731. https://doi.org/10.1000/example
MLA 9
Lovelace, Ada, and Charles Babbage. "Notes on the Analytical Engine." Scientific Memoirs, vol. 3, 1843, pp. 666-731. https://doi.org/10.1000/example.
Chicago (author-date)
Lovelace, Ada, and Charles Babbage. 1843. "Notes on the Analytical Engine." Scientific Memoirs 3: 666-731. https://doi.org/10.1000/example.
Harvard
Lovelace, A. and Babbage, C. (1843) 'Notes on the Analytical Engine', Scientific Memoirs, 3, pp. 666-731. doi: 10.1000/example.
IEEE
A. Lovelace, C. Babbage, "Notes on the Analytical Engine," Scientific Memoirs, vol. 3, pp. 666-731, 1843.
How it works
Every citation style encodes the same facts — who, what, where, when — in a different order, with different punctuation. The differences look arbitrary because they largely are: each developed within a discipline that prioritised different information.
What each style is optimised for
- APA
- Psychology and the social sciences. Author and date come first, because recency matters when knowledge is cumulative.
- MLA
- Humanities. Author and page come first; the date is de-emphasised because a 1920 reading of a text is not superseded by a 2020 one.
- Chicago
- History and publishing. Offers both an author-date system and a notes-and-bibliography system with footnotes.
- Harvard
- Common in the UK and Australia. Similar to APA, but with no single governing authority — institutional variants abound.
- IEEE
- Engineering and computer science. Numbered references in order of appearance, keeping the prose uncluttered.
Prefer a DOI to a URL
A DOI is a permanent identifier that survives a publisher's site reorganisation. URLs rot — studies of legal and academic citations find substantial link death within a decade. Where a DOI exists, every modern style prefers it.
Access dates
MLA and Harvard want an access date for web sources because pages change. APA dropped the requirement for stable content, keeping it only for pages designed to change — a wiki, a live dataset.