Academic citation styles differ in punctuation, author formatting, and title treatment — APA uses (Year) after the author, MLA puts the year at the end, and Chicago splits into notes and bibliography variants. Enter your source details once, and this tool generates all five formats side by side: APA 7th, MLA 9th, Chicago 17th, Harvard, and GB/T 7714-2015 (the Chinese national standard required by most mainland universities).
When to use each citation style
- APA 7th: social sciences, psychology, education, nursing. Uses author-date in-text citations.
- MLA 9th: humanities, literature, arts, cultural studies. Uses author-page in-text citations.
- Chicago 17th: history, fine arts, publishing. Offers both notes-bibliography and author-date systems.
- Harvard: widely used in UK and Australian universities across many disciplines. Similar to APA but with minor formatting differences.
- GB/T 7714-2015: required by Chinese universities and journals. Uses document-type identifiers like [M] for books and [J] for journals.
How author names are formatted across styles
APA and Harvard abbreviate first names to initials (Smith, J. A.), while MLA and Chicago use the full first name (Smith, John Albert). GB/T 7714 drops the periods after initials (Smith J A). When a source has three or more authors, MLA shortens to the first author plus "et al." after the second, APA lists all authors up to 20, and GB/T 7714 lists the first three then adds "等" (or "et al." for English sources). Getting the author format right is the most common citation mistake — this tool handles it automatically.
GB/T 7714-2015 document type identifiers
The Chinese national standard requires a bracketed code after the title to identify the source type: [M] for monographs/books, [J] for journal articles, [C] for conference proceedings, [D] for dissertations, [EB/OL] for online electronic resources, [N] for newspaper articles, and [R] for reports. This tool adds the correct identifier automatically based on the source type you select.
FAQ
Q: Which citation style should I use?
A: Check your assignment guidelines or journal submission requirements — they always specify a style. If none is specified: APA for social sciences, MLA for humanities, Chicago for history, Harvard for UK/AU universities, GB/T 7714 for Chinese institutions.
Q: How do I cite a source with no author?
A: In APA, start with the title and move it to the author position. In MLA, start with the title in quotation marks (for articles) or italics (for books). In GB/T 7714, use the title followed by the document type identifier. If your source genuinely has no author, enter only the title — the tool will format accordingly.
Q: What is the difference between a bibliography and a reference list?
A: A reference list (APA, Harvard) includes only sources cited in the text. A bibliography (Chicago, MLA's Works Cited) may also include sources consulted but not directly cited. In practice, most assignments use one or the other — check your style guide's terminology.