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When to Use Each Citation Format

APA 7th Edition

The American Psychological Association (APA) format is the standard in psychology, education, nursing, social sciences, and business. APA 7th edition, published in 2019, introduced changes like allowing up to 20 authors, recommending the singular "they," and requiring DOIs formatted as URLs.

In-text citation: Use the author's last name and year in parentheses. For direct quotes, include the page number.

MLA 9th Edition

The Modern Language Association (MLA) format is widely used in English, literature, cultural studies, and the humanities. MLA 9th edition emphasizes a core elements approach, giving writers flexibility across source types. It uses parenthetical author-page citations rather than footnotes.

In-text citation: Include the author's last name and page number, with no comma between them.

Chicago / Turabian

The Chicago Manual of Style is used in history, philosophy, and some social sciences. It comes in two systems: Notes-Bibliography (footnotes with a bibliography) and Author-Date (in-text parenthetical citations). This tool generates bibliography entries for the Notes-Bibliography system.

In-text citation (Notes-Bib): Use superscript footnote numbers in the text and provide full citations in footnotes.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which citation format should I use? ▼
It depends on your discipline. APA is standard in psychology, education, and social sciences. MLA is used in English, literature, and humanities. Chicago is common in history, philosophy, and some social sciences. Always check your course syllabus or ask your professor -- different instructors at the same university may prefer different formats.
How do I cite a website with no author? ▼
In APA, use the organization or website name as the author. If none exists, start with the page title. In MLA, begin the citation with the title of the page in quotation marks. In Chicago, start with the title of the page or article. If there is an organization responsible for the content, you can use that as the author.
What is a DOI? ▼
A DOI (Digital Object Identifier) is a permanent, unique identifier assigned to academic articles, books, and other digital content. It looks like a URL starting with https://doi.org/ followed by a string of numbers and letters. DOIs are preferred over URLs in citations because they never change, even if the hosting website moves the content. You can usually find the DOI on the first page of a journal article or on the database record page.
How do I cite multiple authors? ▼
In APA 7th edition, list up to 20 authors separated by commas with an ampersand (&) before the last. For 21+ authors, list the first 19, then an ellipsis, then the last author. In MLA, for two authors use "and" between them; for three or more, list the first followed by "et al." In Chicago, list up to 10 authors; for 11+, list the first 7 followed by "et al." In all formats, invert the first author's name (Last, First) and leave the rest in normal order.
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