Manually enter source details to generate an APA, MLA, or Chicago reference-list citation online - no login required, no autocite lookup. One generic template per style, updated live as you type.
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Citation format rules - comma placement, italics, author order, date formatting - differ between APA, MLA, and Chicago and are easy to get wrong by hand. This tool applies one consistent template per style to whatever details you type in, so you don't have to remember the exact punctuation and field order yourself - though since it's a generic template, you should still check the result against your institution's current style guide, especially for source types like books that this tool's fields don't specifically cover.
Fill in a source's details - author, title, journal or publisher, year, volume, issue, pages, and a URL or DOI - and get a single formatted reference-list citation in APA, MLA, or Chicago style, generated live as you type. This tool doesn't look up sources automatically; every field is typed in by hand, and there's one generic template per style rather than separate forms for websites, books, or articles.
Choose APA, MLA, or Chicago citation style.
Fill in the author, title, journal/publisher, year, volume, issue, pages, and URL or DOI.
The citation updates automatically as you type - no separate generate step.
Click copy, then apply italics manually where the output shows asterisks.
Click APA, MLA, or Chicago - you can switch anytime and the citation updates instantly.
Enter author(s), title, journal/publisher, year, volume, issue, pages, and a URL or DOI - leave any field blank if it doesn't apply to your source.
The formatted citation updates automatically as you type, with no separate "generate" step.
Click Copy, then paste it into your reference list - check it against your style guide before submitting.
Best For
Input
Authors: "Smith, J."; Title: "Climate Trends"; Journal: "Nature"; Year: "2023"; Volume: "12"; Issue: "3"; Pages: "45–67"Result
"Smith, J. (2023). Climate Trends. *Nature*, *12*(3), 45–67."Each field is inserted into a fixed template in order - there's no source-type selector, so the same 8 fields are used whether you're citing a journal article, website, or something else.
Result excerpt
The journal and volume portion of any citationWhat you copy
"*Nature*, *12*(3)"The journal name and volume are wrapped in asterisk characters rather than real italic formatting. On the page, the whole citation is styled in italics with CSS for the preview, but the text you actually copy contains literal asterisk characters, not italic markup - pasting into Word or Google Docs will show the asterisks as plain text.
Input
Style: MLA, Author field left blank, Title field left blankResult
"Last, First. \"Title.\" n. pag."In MLA and Chicago, a blank Author or Title field falls back to the literal placeholder text "Last, First" or "Title" rather than being omitted - it's easy to miss that this is placeholder text, not real data, if you forget to fill in a field. APA behaves differently: a blank title is simply left out rather than replaced with placeholder text.
Type in a source's details once and get a correctly punctuated APA, MLA, or Chicago entry.
Switch between APA, MLA, and Chicago with the same filled-in fields to see how the punctuation and field order differ.
Use the live preview to verify comma placement, italics, and date formatting for a style you're less familiar with.
Generate, copy, and paste each citation individually into your reference list or works-cited page.
Problem
Solution
A blank Author or Title field is replaced with visible placeholder text ("Last, First" or "Title") instead of being left out - check the result carefully before copying.
Problem
Solution
The URL/DOI field is a plain text field - whatever you type is inserted as-is. There's no lookup, so you must type the correct link yourself, including the "https://doi.org/" prefix for a DOI.
Problem
Solution
The journal name and volume are wrapped in literal asterisk characters, not actual italic formatting - you'll need to manually italicize those parts after pasting.
Problem
Solution
There's one generic set of fields for every source type - for a book, you'd need to work around the missing publisher/city fields; for a website, there's no separate access-date field.
Leaving Author or Title blank in MLA/Chicago produces placeholder text that looks like a real (but wrong) citation if you're not paying attention.
Replace the asterisks around the journal name and volume with real italic formatting in your word processor.
Since there's no auto-formatting, enter the complete "https://doi.org/10.XXXX/..." string in the URL/DOI field if you want a proper DOI link.
Books, videos, and other non-journal sources aren't specifically supported - use the generic fields as a starting point and adjust by hand.
There's no DOI, ISBN, or URL lookup of any kind. Every field is typed in by hand, and nothing is fetched from an external source or database.
Harvard, IEEE, Vancouver, and other styles aren't supported.
The same 8 fields are used for a website, book, journal article, or anything else - there's no dedicated book form (with publisher/city) or website form (with an access-date field).
The tool generates a single full citation entry for a bibliography or works-cited list - it doesn't generate parenthetical in-text citations like "(Smith, 2023)".
The journal name and volume are wrapped in asterisks in the copied text - this displays as CSS-italicized text on the page, but the copied text itself contains plain asterisk characters, not italic markup.
In APA, a blank field is simply omitted. In MLA and Chicago, a blank Author or Title field is replaced with visible placeholder text ("Last, First" / "Title") instead.
Only a single citation can be generated and copied at a time - there's no way to build or save a list of multiple citations, and no download or print feature.
The template doesn't track differences between style-guide editions (such as APA 6th vs. 7th) - it applies one fixed format per style, so verify current edition-specific requirements against your institution's guide.
Both produce formatted citations, but only one looks sources up for you.
| This Tool (Manual Entry) | An Autocite Generator (e.g., by DOI or URL) | |
|---|---|---|
| Data entry | You type every field by hand | Paste a URL/DOI/ISBN and fields are fetched automatically |
| Accuracy of fetched data | As accurate as what you type | Depends on the source page's metadata - can mis-scrape |
| Styles | APA, MLA, Chicago (3) | Often hundreds via a CSL engine |
| Source-type forms | One generic form for everything | Often has dedicated fields per source type |
Visitors most often ask which style to use and whether this tool looks sources up automatically. It doesn't - every field is typed in by hand, and the same generic template is used regardless of whether you're citing a website, book, or article. The FAQ below also covers a real formatting quirk: italicized elements appear with literal asterisk characters in the copied text, not true italics.
No. The URL/DOI field is a plain text field - whatever you type is inserted into the citation exactly as typed. There's no lookup, API call, or metadata fetching of any kind; you need to find and enter the correct details yourself.
Just the reference-list entry - the full citation formatted for your bibliography or works-cited page. It doesn't generate a parenthetical in-text citation like "(Smith, 2023)".
That's how the tool marks italics in its plain-text output - the asterisks aren't converted to real italic formatting. The whole citation appears italicized on the page through CSS styling, but the text you copy contains the literal asterisk characters, so you'll need to apply italics manually after pasting into a document.
It depends on the style. In APA, a blank field is simply left out of the citation. In MLA and Chicago, a blank Author or Title field is replaced with visible placeholder text ("Last, First" or "Title") instead of being omitted - check your citation carefully before copying if you left either field empty.
APA (American Psychological Association): Author-date format. Used in social sciences, psychology, education. Example: Smith, J. (2023). Title of work. Publisher. MLA (Modern Language Association): Author-page format. Used in humanities, literature, language. Example: Smith, John. Title of Work. Publisher, 2023. Chicago: Two systems - Notes-Bibliography (history, arts) and Author-Date (sciences). Check your institution's style guide to confirm which is required for your subject.
A standard APA website citation follows: Author, A. A. (Year, Month Day). Title of page. Website Name. URL. Example: World Health Organization. (2023, May 1). Global health overview. WHO. https://www.who.int/global-health. If no author: use the website name as the author. If no date: use (n.d.) for 'no date'. Note that this tool's own Year field only collects a year, not a month and day - if your source needs a full publication date, type it directly into that field (e.g., "2023, May 1").
A standard MLA website citation follows: Last, First. "Title of Page." Website Name, Day Month Year, URL. Example: Smith, John. "Understanding Climate Change." NASA Science, 15 Mar. 2023, science.nasa.gov/climate-change. If no author: start with the article title. This tool has no separate access-date field, so add one manually after the URL if your citation needs it.
Yes - always. Citation is required for any idea, argument, data, or finding that originated from another source, regardless of whether you quoted it directly or paraphrased it. The only exception is common knowledge: facts that are widely known and can be confirmed in multiple independent sources without attribution (e.g., the year World War II ended). When in doubt, cite.
DOI (Digital Object Identifier) is a permanent identifier for academic articles, books, and datasets - a stable link that does not change when URLs do. Include it if one exists, in the format https://doi.org/10.XXXX/XXXXX. DOIs are found on the journal article page, usually labeled 'DOI' or starting with '10.'. This tool doesn't fetch or validate DOIs - type the complete link into the URL/DOI field yourself.
No. CoditTools's citation generator runs entirely in your browser - the details you type are never sent to a server or any external database.
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