Citation Generator
Generate APA, MLA, Chicago & Harvard citations from DOI, ISBN, or URL
Free, no signup required
Citations appear here
Enter a DOI, ISBN, or URL and click Generate to create a formatted citation.
Looking up source...
How It Works
- 1
Enter a Source
Paste a DOI (e.g. 10.1038/nature12373), ISBN, or URL. The tool auto-fills author, title, journal, and year from Crossref or Google Books. You can also enter details manually.
- 2
Choose a Format
Select APA 7th, MLA 9th, Chicago 17th, or Harvard. The citation is generated instantly with correct punctuation, italics, and ordering for each style.
- 3
Copy or Build a Bibliography
Copy individual citations or add them to a bibliography list. When you are done, copy the full bibliography — sorted alphabetically as required by each format.
Who Uses This
Students
Format references for essays, research papers, and dissertations. Look up DOIs from journal articles and get instant APA or MLA citations.
Researchers
Build reference lists for journal submissions. Paste DOIs from your reading list and generate citations in the required format.
Writers & Journalists
Cite books, reports, and web sources in articles and blog posts. Enter ISBNs for books or URLs for online sources.
Professionals
Reference industry reports, whitepapers, and standards in proposals. Quick formatting without installing reference manager software.
Instant citations, bibliography builder
Saved lists, more source tools
Priority tools, full research stack
Frequently Asked Questions
What citation formats are supported?
APA 7th Edition, MLA 9th Edition, Chicago 17th Edition (Notes-Bibliography), and Harvard. These cover the vast majority of academic and professional citations.
How does DOI lookup work?
Enter a DOI (e.g., 10.1038/nature12373) and the tool fetches metadata from the Crossref API — title, authors, journal, year, volume, pages. The citation is generated instantly from this data.
How does ISBN lookup work?
Enter an ISBN-10 or ISBN-13 and the tool fetches book metadata from the Google Books API — title, authors, publisher, year, edition. Works with most published books.
Can I cite a website URL?
Yes. Enter any URL and fill in the author, title, site name, and access date. The tool formats it correctly for each citation style. Some fields are optional depending on the format.
Is this tool free?
Yes. Citation Generator is 100% free with no limits, no signup, and no ads. All processing happens in your browser — nothing is uploaded to any server.
Is my data private?
Completely. DOI and ISBN lookups call public APIs (Crossref, Google Books) directly from your browser. We never see or store your citation data.
Can I generate multiple citations at once?
Yes. Add citations one at a time and they accumulate in your bibliography list. Copy individual citations or the entire bibliography at once.
How accurate are the citations?
Citation formatting follows official style guides. Metadata accuracy depends on the source — Crossref and Google Books are highly reliable for published works. Always double-check author names and page numbers against the original source.
Does it handle et al. correctly?
Yes. APA uses et al. for 3+ authors after the first citation (and always in the reference for 21+ authors). MLA uses et al. for 3+ authors. Chicago and Harvard each follow their respective rules for multiple authors.
Can I edit the citation after generating it?
Yes. After generating, you can manually edit any field (author, title, year, etc.) and regenerate the citation. The tool preserves your edits.
What is the difference between APA and MLA?
APA (American Psychological Association) is used in social sciences, psychology, and education — it emphasizes the publication date. MLA (Modern Language Association) is used in humanities and literature — it emphasizes the author. Each has distinct formatting rules for punctuation, italics, and ordering.
Does it work on mobile?
Yes. The entire tool works in mobile browsers. Paste a DOI or ISBN, select a format, and copy the citation. Fully responsive.
Can I export citations to BibTeX?
Not yet — BibTeX export is planned. For now, you can copy formatted citations as plain text for Word, Google Docs, or any text editor.
How does this compare to Zotero, Mendeley, or EasyBib?
Zotero and Mendeley are full reference managers with browser extensions and PDF storage. EasyBib requires an account. Our tool is a quick, free citation formatter — no account, no installation. Use it when you need a citation fast without setting up a reference manager.
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Coda One's Citation Generator creates properly formatted citations in APA 7th, MLA 9th, Chicago 17th, and Harvard styles. Look up sources by DOI using the Crossref API or by ISBN using Google Books — metadata is fetched instantly. Build a bibliography list and copy it all at once. Free to use, no signup required, runs entirely in your browser.