What it does
Pick the kind of source, type what you can see on its title page or web page, and choose a style. The reference appears at once, with the italics in the right places, and you can copy it into a Word or Google document with the italics kept. Nothing is looked up: you type the details, so nothing you write leaves your device and it works offline.
You can add each finished reference to a list. The list is sorted the way the style wants (by the first author’s family name; IEEE keeps the order you added them, numbered), and can be copied or downloaded as plain text, BibTeX or RIS for Zotero, Mendeley and EndNote. If you already have a messy .bib file, tidy it with the bibTeX cleaner; for the rest of your application papers, see the ATS resume builder.
How to use it
- Choose the type: book, journal article, chapter in an edited book, web page or report.
- Type the authors, one per line, as “Family, Given”. A company goes on one line with no comma.
- Fill the fields that show. Leave out what you do not have.
- Pick the style. Press Copy, or Add to my list to build a reference list.
What each setting does
- Authors: names are shortened to initials where the style asks for it, and long lists are cut with “et al.” by each style’s rule.
- DOI: shown as a https://doi.org/ link. If you give both a DOI and a web address, the DOI is used.
- Date you looked at it: used for web pages without a date, and by Harvard and IEEE.
- Page you cite: only for the Chicago footnote.
- Chicago notes and bibliography: gives the footnote and the bibliography entry together.
Worked example
Two authors, “Rao, Meera” and “Ivanov, Pavel”, year 2021, an article “Soil moisture and crop yield in semi-arid farms” in Journal of Dryland Studies, volume 14, issue 3, pages 201-219 (all invented). In APA 7 this gives: Rao, M., & Ivanov, P. (2021). Soil moisture and crop yield in semi-arid farms. Journal of Dryland Studies, 14(3), 201–219. In IEEE it becomes: M. Rao and P. Ivanov, “Soil moisture and crop yield in semi-arid farms,” Journal of Dryland Studies, vol. 14, no. 3, pp. 201–219, 2021.
FAQs
Does it change my capital letters? No. APA and Harvard want sentence case for most titles, while MLA and Chicago want title case. Type the title as the style needs it.
Will my teacher accept it? Check the output against your own style guide. Courses and journals often make small changes of their own, so treat this as a good first draft.
Why no “look up by DOI or ISBN”? That would send what you type to another website. This page keeps everything on your device.
Is my list saved? No. It lives only while the page is open, so download it before you leave.
Where the numbers come from
- The punctuation, name order and italic rules for APA 7th edition, MLA 9th edition, Chicago 17th edition (author-date and notes-bibliography), Harvard (the common Cite Them Right layout) and IEEE are written by fibub from the published style rules. They are not the official style guides and no example text is copied from them.
- Universities and journals often add their own variations, especially for Harvard. Check your own style guide or the one your journal gives you.
- The example authors, titles and DOI (10.1234 is a made-up prefix) are invented.
Standard scientific values, such as constants, atomic weights and melting points, are facts found in every textbook; we name where ours were checked. If you are an author or publisher and want a value, a credit or a table changed or removed, tell us and we will act quickly.
Last updated 2026-11-10.