APA Citation Generator
Paste a DOI, ISBN or web address — or a whole list of them — and get APA 7 references, in-text citations and a ready-to-submit reference page. Free, no signup.
Or pick a source type and type the details yourself.
APA uses sentence case for titles. — then capitalize proper nouns.
Reference list entry
Your citation appears here as you type.
Parenthetical citation
—
Narrative citation
—
Up to 50 sources at a time. They are sorted into APA order automatically.
In short
Paste one DOI, ISBN or URL — or up to 50 at once, one per line — check the filled-in fields, and copy an APA 7th edition reference such as Desmond, M. (2012). Eviction and the reproduction of urban poverty. American Journal of Sociology, 118(1), 88–133, with its in-text citations (Desmond, 2012, p. 95) and Desmond (2012). The reference page sorts itself into APA order and downloads as a Word file with the bold “References” heading, double spacing and hanging indents.
APA 7 references at a glance
- Authors are written last name first with initials: Desmond, M. Separate authors with commas and put “&” before the last one. List up to 20 authors; with 21 or more, give the first 19, an ellipsis, then the last author.
- The date follows the authors in parentheses: (2012). Web pages with a full date use (2024, March 5). Use (n.d.) when there is no date.
- Article, book, chapter and web page titles are in sentence case. Book and web page titles are italic; article and chapter titles are not.
- Journal articles end with the journal name and volume in italics, the issue in parentheses, the page range and the DOI: American Journal of Sociology, 118(1), 88–133. https://doi.org/10.1086/666082
- Books give the edition in parentheses after the title and the publisher — not the city. Chapters read “In E. Editor (Ed.), Book title (pp. 55–64). Publisher.”
- Leave out the website name when it is the same as the author, and use “Retrieved … from” only for pages designed to change.
How to format an APA reference page
- Start the list on a new page with the heading References, bold and centered.
- Double-space every entry and give each one a 0.5-inch hanging indent.
- Order entries alphabetically by the first author's last name. One author's works go oldest first; works by the same author in the same year get letters: (2020a), (2020b).
- Every source cited in the text must appear on the reference page, and every entry must be cited in the text.
Summarized from the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 7th edition (2020), chapters 8–10, and the APA Style website.
Examples
Real sources, formatted by this generator (page 12 shown in the in-text citations):
Journal article, one author
Desmond, M. (2012). Eviction and the reproduction of urban poverty. American Journal of Sociology, 118(1), 88–133. https://doi.org/10.1086/666082
Parenthetical citation (page 12): (Desmond, 2012, p. 12)
Narrative citation (page 12): Desmond (2012, p. 12)
Journal article, two authors
Innocente, N., & Baker, J. (2018). The sociology teaching fellowship: A mentorship model for graduate student teacher training. Teaching Sociology, 46(4), 335–345. https://doi.org/10.1177/0092055X18791686
Parenthetical citation (page 12): (Innocente & Baker, 2018, p. 12)
Narrative citation (page 12): Innocente and Baker (2018, p. 12)
Journal article, three authors
Marucho, M., Kelley, C. T., & Pettitt, B. M. (2008). Solutions of the optimized closure integral equation theory: Heteronuclear polyatomic fluids. Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation, 4(3), 385–396. https://doi.org/10.1021/ct700202h
Parenthetical citation (page 12): (Marucho et al., 2008, p. 12)
Narrative citation (page 12): Marucho et al. (2008, p. 12)
Book
Desmond, M. (2016). Evicted: Poverty and profit in the American city. Crown.
Parenthetical citation (page 12): (Desmond, 2016, p. 12)
Narrative citation (page 12): Desmond (2016, p. 12)
Chapter in an edited book
Gray, R. R. R. (2018). Repatriation and decolonization. In F. Gunderson, R. C. Lancefield, & B. Woods (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of musical repatriation (pp. 722–738). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190659806.013.39
Parenthetical citation (page 12): (Gray, 2018, p. 12)
Narrative citation (page 12): Gray (2018, p. 12)
Web page by an organization, no date
United Nations. (n.d.). What is climate change? https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/what-is-climate-change
Parenthetical citation (page 12): (United Nations, n.d., p. 12)
Narrative citation (page 12): United Nations (n.d., p. 12)
How to use it
- Paste a DOI, an ISBN or the page address and press Cite — or choose the source type and type the details.
- Check every field against the source. Titles are converted to sentence case, so re-capitalize proper nouns.
- Copy the reference and the in-text citation, or add the source to your reference page.
- For a whole bibliography, paste all your DOIs, ISBNs and links at once, then copy the page or download it for Word or Google Docs.
Writing in another style? Use the ASA citation generator for sociology, Chicago style for history and the humanities, or the ACS citation generator for chemistry. Still choosing what to write about? Try the research topic generator.
Frequently asked questions
Which edition of APA does this generator use?
APA 7th edition (Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 2020), the current version used by most schools and journals. It lists up to 20 authors, writes DOIs as https://doi.org/ links and leaves out the publisher location for books.
How do I make an APA reference page?
Add each source to the list, or paste several DOIs, ISBNs or URLs at once, one per line. The generator sorts them into APA order, adds a, b, c to works by the same author in the same year, and lets you copy the page with italics or download it as a Word file with the bold, centered “References” heading, double spacing and 0.5-inch hanging indent.
How should the references be ordered in APA 7?
Alphabetically by the first author's last name, then by initials. Works by the same author go from oldest to newest, with undated (n.d.) works first. A work with no author is filed by the first significant word of its title, ignoring A, An and The.
What is the difference between a parenthetical and a narrative citation?
A parenthetical citation puts the author and year in brackets at the end of the sentence: (Desmond, 2012, p. 95). A narrative citation makes the author part of the sentence: Desmond (2012) argues… Two authors are joined with “&” in brackets and “and” in the sentence; three or more use the first author and “et al.” from the first citation.
Why does APA use sentence case for titles?
APA 7 writes article, book, chapter and web page titles in sentence case — only the first word, the first word after a colon and proper nouns are capitalized. Journal and website names keep title case. Databases often return titles in title case, so the generator converts them; check that names of people, places and organizations are still capitalized.
Is my data stored?
No. DOIs and ISBNs are looked up directly from Crossref and Open Library in your browser. A web address is read once by our server to pull the page title and author. Your reference page is saved only in your browser.
Related tools: ASA citation generator · Chicago style citation generator · ACS citation generator · Vancouver citation generator · Research topic generator
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