Citation Generator

How to Cite Sources in Your Papers

Properly citing your sources is essential in academic writing. Citations give credit to original authors, allow readers to verify your claims, and help you avoid plagiarism. The three most common citation styles used in universities are APA, MLA, and Chicago.

When to Use Each Style

• APA 7th edition - Social sciences, psychology, education, nursing, business. Emphasizes the year of publication.
• MLA 9th edition - English, literature, arts, humanities. Focuses on the author and page number for in-text citations.
• Chicago/Turabian - History, some humanities and social sciences. Uses footnotes or endnotes (notes-bibliography system) or author-date format.

Tips for Accurate Citations

• Always check your professor's style requirements before starting
• Include DOIs for journal articles whenever available
• Use hanging indentation in your reference list (first line flush left, subsequent lines indented)
• Keep author names consistent - use the format shown on the source
• When in doubt about a source detail, include more information rather than less

Common Mistakes to Avoid

The most frequent citation errors students make include: forgetting to italicize titles, using incorrect date formats, missing DOIs or URLs, and inconsistent formatting across entries. This generator handles all of these formatting details automatically.