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These are parallel drafts for one source, not a batch of sources.
Choose the closest retrievable source shape before entering its record.
Name particles, suffixes, and complex organizations still need manual review.
A title is required for a usable citation draft.
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Do not infer a year from the date you accessed the source.
Prefer the DOI for scholarly material when the source record provides one.
The tool formats this value but does not fetch or verify it.
Blank keeps the year-only date.
Blank is neutral; a day without a month is flagged for review.
Blank is neutral for a first edition or an unstated edition.
Blank is neutral when the journal record has no volume.
Blank is neutral when the journal record has no issue.
Blank is neutral when the source record has no page range.
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Blank keeps whole-source citation forms.
Blank is neutral for stable sources.
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Draft content only: apply required italics, hanging indentation, capitalization, and local style exceptions in the final document.

StylePrimary citationNarrative or noteUse noteCopy
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CheckStatusCurrent detailNext actionCopy
{{ row.check }}{{ row.status }}{{ row.detail }}{{ row.action }}
Word Counter Count words and measure readability locally in drafts or TXT files, with configurable token rules and focused repetition checks for editing.
Case Converter Convert headings and identifiers into 13 case styles with per-line scope, acronym rules and accent folding for filenames or slugs before reuse.
README Generator Draft a repository README from project facts, then check setup and usage instructions plus licensing and contribution guidance before publishing.
JSON Formatter Format JSON for review or transport, inspect its structure and byte size, and flag duplicate keys or precision risks before reuse.

A citation connects a statement in a document to the source record a reader can inspect. The visible punctuation is only the last step. Accuracy begins with identifying the work correctly, recording the people or organization responsible for it, and preserving the publication facts that distinguish it from similar sources.

Three decisions shape most citations. The source type determines which facts matter, the citation style determines their order and punctuation, and the place where the citation appears determines whether a page, paragraph, timestamp, section, or other locator is needed. A web page and a journal article may share an author and title, but the article also depends on journal, volume, issue, and page information.

Part Examples Common mistake
Source facts Creator, title, container, publisher, date, edition, pages, DOI Copying incomplete metadata from a search result
Style rules Name order, title treatment, punctuation, date position Mixing rules from different editions or institutions
Document context Reference-list order, note number, passage locator, hanging indent Treating a draft entry as final document formatting

Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) are persistent identifiers and are normally presented as full secure resolver links. A DOI should take precedence over a less stable landing-page URL when both identify the same work. It still needs to be checked against the original publication because a well-formed DOI can belong to the wrong article.

Legal authorities, datasets, media, and AI-generated responses add context that a generic template cannot settle. Legal form varies by court and jurisdiction. Harvard referencing varies by institution. AI citation and disclosure rules may depend on whether the response is retrievable and on the assignment or publisher policy.

A citation generator is best used to assemble and compare drafts. The final check belongs against the original source and the exact guide required by the school, journal, court, conference, or publisher.

How to Use This Tool:

Start from the source itself, not a citation copied from another paper or an unverified search result.

  1. Choose Source type. The form changes to request the fields that matter for a web page, book, article, report, thesis, conference paper, media item, dataset, legal case, or AI response.
  2. Select one or more citation styles. Use the exact style and edition named by the document requirements; treat Harvard draft as a starting point for an institutional variant.
  3. Enter creators one per line or separate them with semicolons. Use Family, Given when name order must be unambiguous, then add the title and available publication facts.
  4. Enter a DOI as either the identifier or a DOI URL. Add a source URL only when needed, and put a page, paragraph, timestamp, or section in In-text locator rather than the full reference fields.
  5. Compare the citation draft with Source readiness and Citation review. Resolve missing facts and policy warnings, then apply final capitalization, italics, indentation, numbering, and note placement in the document.

Interpreting Results:

Ready means the source-type checklist found a value for each field it expects. It does not mean that those values are correct or that every style exception has been applied. Review identifies a missing fact or an unavoidable policy decision, such as an institutional Harvard variant, legal jurisdiction, or AI disclosure rule.

Reference entries and in-text forms come from the same normalized record. If both are wrong in the same way, correct the source fields rather than editing each result separately. A DOI is normalized to its full resolver form and takes precedence over the URL in generated references.

Technical Details:

Citation drafting is a rule-based text transformation rather than an arithmetic calculation. The source type selects a readiness schema, author text is parsed into name parts, the chosen style applies its grammar, and the same record produces full-reference and in-text forms.

Transformation Core:

Style Reference transformation In-text form
APA 7 Family names with initials, parenthesized date, work title, source, and DOI or URL Author–date, with an optional locator
MLA 9 Author, work title, container details, publication date, locator, and optional access date Author–locator or title–locator
Chicago Author-Date Author, year, work title, source details, and locator Author–date with an optional locator
Chicago Notes/Bibliography Author, title, source details, date, and locator in note-oriented order A numbered full-note draft and a shortened note draft
IEEE A bracketed numeric entry with initials, family names, title, source details, year, and locator Bracketed numeric reference; final numbering depends on document order
Harvard draft A generic author–date pattern using the available source details Author–date with a mandatory variant-review warning

Creator parsing splits entries at line breaks or semicolons. A comma is interpreted as Family, Given; otherwise the final word becomes the family name. A single unpunctuated name containing an institutional term such as university, agency, association, court, or company is treated as a group author. These rules are deterministic but cannot resolve particles, suffixes, compound family names, or every organization name without explicit punctuation.

Source group Fields checked for readiness
Web page Creator, title, website name, publication year, and DOI or URL
Book Creator or editor, title, publisher, and publication year
Journal article Creator, article title, journal, year, volume, pages, and DOI or URL
News article, conference paper, video, or podcast Creator, title, containing publication or program, year, and DOI or URL; conference papers also check the proceedings title
Report, thesis, or dataset Creator, title, responsible institution, year, and DOI or URL; reports and datasets also check their number or version
Legal case Case name, court or jurisdiction, reporter or case identifier, year, and DOI or URL
AI response Prompt or response title, platform, developer, year, share context, and retrievable locator

At least one style and a title are required. A supplied year must be an integer from 1 through 9999. Month values must come from the supported month list, and a day must be a whole number from 1 through 31; the draft does not perform a full calendar check for month-specific day counts. A missing valid year is rendered as n.d. where the style uses a date.

DOI input has a leading doi: or resolver address removed, then receives the canonical secure DOI resolver prefix. That transformation checks presentation, not DOI registration or whether the identifier resolves to the intended work.

Accuracy Notes:

The output is a conservative draft and does not cover every source-type exception in six style systems. Verify author order, title capitalization, italics, container relationships, dates, edition details, volume and issue, page range, DOI, URL, and locator against the original source. Then apply the exact institutional or publisher guide, especially for legal works, AI responses, and Harvard variants.

References: