How to cite a book, article or web page in APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard or IEEE

Guide · Updated 2026-11-10

Learn what a reference is made of, then type a source's details once and get it in six citation styles, with a sorted reference list you can copy or export as BibTeX or RIS.

Open the Citation generator Free, in your browser, nothing uploaded.

Every essay, lab report and thesis ends with a list of what you read, and getting the commas, italics and name order right by hand is slow. The citation generator takes the details of one source, shows the reference in the style you pick and lets you collect a whole reference list, sorted and ready to paste. It is for students, teachers, researchers and anyone whose report must show its sources. If you already have a reference file from another program, tidy it in the bibTeX cleaner, and check your essay length against the limit in the word counter.

What it is

A reference is a few facts in a fixed order. For a book: who wrote it, when, the title, the edition and the publisher. For a journal article you add the journal name, volume, issue and pages. For a web page you add the site name, the address and often the day you looked at it.

A citation style is a rulebook for laying those facts out. The styles differ in four main ways:

• Name order. APA and Harvard write “Okafor, C.” with initials. MLA and Chicago write the full first name. IEEE puts the initial first: “C. Okafor”.
• Where the year goes. APA, Harvard and Chicago author-date put it straight after the names, because the in-text citation is (Author, year). MLA, IEEE and Chicago notes put it near the end.
• How many names before “et al.” MLA shortens to the first name and “et al.” once there are three or more authors. Harvard and Chicago notes do so after three, IEEE after six, and APA lists up to twenty.
• Order of the list. Most styles sort by the first author’s family name. IEEE numbers sources in the order you cite them.

You supply the facts and the tool does the layout. It never looks anything up online, so it cannot fill in a missing year.

How to use it

1. In About the source, pick what it is: Book, Journal article, Chapter in an edited book, Web page or Report. The form shows only the boxes that kind of source needs.
2. Pick a Style: APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago author-date, Chicago notes and bibliography, Harvard or IEEE.
3. Type the authors one per line as Family, Given. An organisation goes on one line with no comma.
4. Fill in the other boxes you can see. Any gap the styles care about shows as a short warning above the result.
5. Press Copy to paste one reference into your document with italics kept, or Add to my list to collect it.
6. In My list, press Copy list, or download it as .txt, .bib or .ris. Switch style and the whole list follows.

A worked example

Here is a made-up book: Water in small towns: A practical history, 2nd edition, by Chidi Okafor, Sara Lindqvist and Arjun Mehta, published in 2019 by Riverbank Books in Leeds. You quote page 88.

Type the three authors as “Okafor, Chidi”, “Lindqvist, Sara” and “Mehta, Arjun”, year 2019, edition 2, publisher and place, and 88 in Page you cite. The results:

• APA 7: Okafor, C., Lindqvist, S., & Mehta, A. (2019). Water in small towns: A practical history (2nd ed.). Riverbank Books.
• MLA 9: Okafor, Chidi, et al. Water in small towns: A practical history. 2nd ed., Riverbank Books, 2019.
• Harvard: Okafor, C., Lindqvist, S. and Mehta, A. (2019) Water in small towns: A practical history. 2nd ed. Leeds: Riverbank Books.
• IEEE: C. Okafor, S. Lindqvist, and A. Mehta, Water in small towns: A practical history, 2nd ed. Leeds: Riverbank Books, 2019.
• Chicago notes, footnote: Chidi Okafor, Sara Lindqvist, and Arjun Mehta, Water in small towns: A practical history, 2nd ed. (Leeds: Riverbank Books, 2019), 88.

MLA cuts the three authors to one name and “et al.”; the others keep all three. APA leaves out the city, and only the footnote uses page 88.

Now an undated web page by an organisation: “How to read your water bill” from a city water board, viewed on 3 November 2026. Type “City Water Board” as the author on one line, leave the year empty and set the date you looked at it. The tool warns that the year will show as “n.d.” (no date), and APA gives: City Water Board. (n.d.). How to read your water bill. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://example.org/bill

Where it is used

• School projects. First-time writers of references can see how each style treats one book.
• University essays and theses. Build the list as you read, then export .bib for LaTeX or .ris for Zotero, Mendeley or EndNote.
• Engineering and computing papers. IEEE’s numbered list matches the order of citations in the text.

Common mistakes

• Typing names the wrong way round. “Chidi Okafor” on one line is read as a group name. Use Family, Given so initials come out right.
• Wrong capital letters in the title. APA and Harvard want sentence case, MLA and Chicago want title case. The tool keeps what you type, so type it the way your style needs.
• Citing the web page when there is a DOI. For articles, a DOI is the stable link. If you enter both, the DOI wins.
• Trusting it over your course handbook. Departments tweak styles, Harvard most of all. Compare one entry with your handbook before you do the rest.

Questions people ask

What is the difference between a citation and a reference? The citation is the short pointer in your text, such as (Okafor et al., 2019). The reference is the full entry in the list at the end.

Which style should I use? The one your teacher, department or journal names. If none is given, pick one and use it the same way throughout.

What is a .ris or .bib file? Plain-text formats that reference managers and LaTeX read, so you do not have to type the sources again.