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Citation generator

Format a reference in APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago, Harvard, IEEE or Vancouver — from manually entered details or pasted BibTeX/RIS. No ads, no signup, switch styles with one click.

Let the AI do this — sign up freeUpload your data, get the write-up back.

When to use this

Use a citation generator whenever you need a properly formatted reference and don't have a reference manager wired into your document: one-off citations in an essay or thesis, a reference list for a grant application or report, checking that an existing bibliography entry follows the rules, or converting a BibTeX/RIS export into human-readable references. Each of the six supported styles encodes dozens of fiddly rules — author initials vs. full names, ampersands vs. 'and', where the year goes, when to use quotation marks vs. italics, 'et al.' thresholds — and applying them by hand is the kind of mechanical work that invites errors. Enter the metadata once and let the formatter apply the rules deterministically.

What the generator handles

  • Six styles: APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago (author–date), Harvard, IEEE and Vancouver.
  • All common source types: journal articles, books, chapters, conference papers, theses, reports, preprints, datasets and web pages.
  • Correct author-list rules per style, including the "et al." and 20+-author truncation rules.
  • DOIs normalized to the form each style expects.

Common mistakes

  • Trusting any generator blindly — automatic formatters cannot know journal-specific exceptions; always proofread against the style guide.
  • Entering the title in ALL CAPS or Title Case and expecting the tool to fix it — capitalization conventions differ by style, so enter the title in sentence case.
  • Mixing styles within one reference list after copying from different sources.
  • Forgetting the in-text citation must match the reference list entry (author spelling, year).

Frequently asked questions

Which citation style should I use?
Whatever your venue requires: APA dominates psychology, education and much of the social sciences; MLA is standard in literature and the humanities; Chicago in history; Harvard in many UK and Australian universities; IEEE in engineering and computer science; Vancouver in medicine. Course syllabi and journal author guidelines always state the required style — when in doubt, ask, because mixing styles costs easy marks.
Why does my reference need a DOI?
Modern styles (APA 7, Vancouver, IEEE) ask for the DOI when one exists because it is the permanent link to the paper — URLs rot, DOIs do not. Paste the DOI with or without the https://doi.org/ prefix and the generator formats it correctly for the selected style.
Can I cite a whole bibliography at once?
Yes — switch to "Paste BibTeX / RIS", paste any number of entries (e.g. an export from Zotero, Mendeley or Google Scholar), and every reference is formatted in the selected style with per-item copy buttons and a "Copy all".

Style-specific generators

Need one style with its rules and examples spelled out? Each style has its own page:

APA 7th editionMLA 9th editionChicago (author–date)Harvard styleIEEE styleVancouver style

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In Kahubi, your library carries the metadata: the agent cites papers as it writes, in your configured style, and the bibliography always matches the in-text citations — in LaTeX or rich text.

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