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APA Citation Generator

This free APA citation generator follows the APA 7th edition. Paste a DOI, web address, ISBN, PubMed ID or title, check the details it finds, and copy a reference list entry with its matching in-text citation. Collect every source in a list and copy the whole References page at once.

Or fill in the fields below by hand. Check every citation against the source before you submit.

Reference in APA 7th edition

Look up a source or type a title and an author to see the citation.

Formatting by citeproc-js (CPAL-1.0) with Citation Style Language styles (CC BY-SA 3.0). Book data from Open Library, article data from Crossref, DataCite and PubMed. citeproc-js source code

Writing your paper in LaTeX? Convert a Word or PDF draft into LaTeX and keep your APA references.

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What Is an APA Citation Generator?

Reference Entries in APA 7

An APA citation generator builds the reference list entry the Publication Manual asks for: author, date, title and source, in that order, with the right italics, capitals and DOI link. Ours uses the official APA 7 style file, so the punctuation follows the manual.

In-Text Citations to Match

Each reference comes with its parenthetical citation, such as (LeCun et al., 2015). Use the narrative form, LeCun et al. (2015), when the author is part of your sentence, and add a page number for direct quotations.

Every Common Source Type

Journal articles, books, chapters, web pages, reports, theses, preprints and datasets each follow their own APA pattern. Choose the type and the APA citation generator shows the fields that pattern needs.

Why Use Our APA Citation Generator?

Looked Up, Not Guessed

Our APA citation generator takes details from Crossref, DataCite, PubMed and Open Library, so names, volume, issue and pages match the published record. Nothing is invented.

A Ready References Page

Add sources to the list and they are sorted alphabetically by first author, as APA requires. Copy them with italics intact, then set the page to double spacing with a hanging indent in your editor.

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BibTeX When You Need It

Writing in LaTeX with biblatex-apa? Get a BibTeX entry for any DOI and let biber format it in APA style.

Open DOI to BibTeX

How to Use It in 3 Steps

Step 1: Paste a Source

Paste a DOI, URL, ISBN, PMID or title into the APA citation generator and press Cite, or pick a source type and fill in the fields by hand.

Step 2: Check Against the Source

Confirm the authors, year, title and page range. APA uses sentence case for article and book titles, so fix any capitals the publisher record carried over.

Step 3: Copy Into Your Paper

Copy the reference into your References page and the in-text citation into your sentence, or build the full list first and copy it in one go.

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Official references: APA Style · biblatex-apa (CTAN)

APA Citation Generator: styleLatex card with the tool's purpose and a code sample | APA Citation Generator

APA Citation Generator FAQ

How to do in text citations APA?
Give the author’s surname and the year: (Smith, 2020) in parentheses, or Smith (2020) in your sentence. Add the page for a quotation: (Smith, 2020, p. 15). The APA citation generator shows the right form for each source.
How to do APA citation?
List author, date, title and source: Smith, J. (2020). Title of the work. Publisher. Each in-text citation points to one reference entry, and this APA citation generator builds both.
What is APA citation?
The author-date referencing style of the American Psychological Association, used across psychology, education, nursing and the social sciences. The current version is the 7th edition of the Publication Manual (2019).
Are citations double spaced in APA?
Yes. The whole paper, References included, is double spaced, with a 0.5-inch hanging indent and entries in alphabetical order by first author.
How to do APA citation for website?
Author. (Year, Month Day). Title of page. Site Name. URL. Drop the site name when it matches the author; add a retrieval date only for pages that keep changing.
What does APA citation look like?
A journal article looks like this: LeCun, Y., Bengio, Y., & Hinton, G. (2015). Deep learning. Nature, 521(7553), 436–444. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature14539, with the journal name and volume in italics.
How to in text citation multiple authors APA?
Two authors: name both, (Smith & Lee, 2020). Three or more: first author and et al. from the first citation, (Smith et al., 2020).
How to APA book citation?
Author, A. A. (Year). Title of work (2nd ed.). Publisher. https://doi.org/xxxx, with no publisher location in APA 7. Our APA citation generator fills it in from the ISBN.
Where to put page number in APA citation?
After the year in the in-text citation: (Smith, 2020, p. 15), or pp. 15–17 for a range. Use para. 4 when a source has no page numbers.
How to do APA in text citation with no author?
Use the first few words of the title instead: ("Climate Report," 2021) for an article or page, or (Climate Report, 2021) in italics for a book or report. An organisation that published the work counts as the author.
How to cite a citation within a citation APA?
Name the original and the source you read: (Freud, 1900, as cited in Jones, 2015). Only Jones (2015) goes in the reference list.
How to do an APA citation page?
Start a page titled References, bold and centred, listing every cited source alphabetically, double spaced with a hanging indent. The APA citation generator list copies them all at once.
What is DOI in APA citation?
A Digital Object Identifier, a permanent link to a published work. APA 7 writes it as a URL at the end, such as https://doi.org/10.1038/nature14539, with no full stop.
How to in text citation a video APA?
Use the channel as the author: (TED, 2019). Reference: TED. (2019, May 3). Title of video [Video]. YouTube. URL.
What is the difference between APA and MLA citations?
APA cites author and year, (Smith, 2020), under References; MLA cites author and page, (Smith 15), under Works Cited, with full first names.
What does nd mean in APA citation?
n.d. means "no date": Smith, J. (n.d.). Title. Site. URL, and (Smith, n.d.) in the text. Leave the year empty in the APA citation generator to get it.
Can ChatGPT do APA citations?
It formats sources you give it but often invents authors, pages or DOIs when asked to find them. An APA citation generator that looks sources up avoids this.
Does this APA citation generator use the 7th edition?
Yes. It uses the official CSL style for APA 7th edition, the version required by most universities and journals since 2020: up to 20 authors, no publisher location and DOIs written as https links.
How do I make an APA citation for a PDF?
Cite the work inside the PDF, not the file. A journal article PDF is cited as an article: paste the DOI printed on its first page. A report PDF is cited as a report, with the URL where you found it.
How do I cite a government report or website in APA?
Use the agency as the author: National Institute of Mental Health. (2023). Title of report (NIH Publication No. 23-1234). URL. Choose Report as the source type and give the agency name in braces.
Can I use APA style in LaTeX?
Yes. Use biblatex with style=apa and biber, or the apacite package. Both read a .bib file, which our DOI to BibTeX tool creates.

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