Citation Style Finder

Answer four questions to find the citation style you most likely need. Every recommendation shows its reasoning.

Free, no account

Related tools
Related guides

Your situation

What are you writing?

University assignment or essayThesis or dissertationJournal articleBook or book chapterWebsite or blog content

What subject is it in?

Subject conventions are the strongest clue to a style.

Psychology or social sciencesEducationNursing or health sciencesMedicine or biomedical sciencesNatural sciencesEngineering or computer scienceBusiness or economicsHistoryLiterature, languages or artsLawOther or not sure

Who decides the style?

My instructor or lecturerMy university or departmentA journal or publisherNo one: I can chooseI don't know

Where are you studying or publishing? (optional)

This changes the result for law, and where regional practice differs.

Related tools

Tools that work on the same material, for the next step in your project.

APA 7 Citation & Reference Builder
Builds temporary APA 7 references and in-text citations for books, journal articles and web pages in APA Style, 7th edition.
MLA Citation Generator
Formats Works Cited entries and in-text citations in MLA Style, 9th edition.
Chicago Author-Date Citation Generator
Formats reference list entries and author–date text citations in Chicago style, 18th edition.
Chicago Notes and Bibliography Citation Generator
Formats full notes, shortened notes and bibliography entries in Chicago style, 18th edition.
IEEE Citation Generator
Formats numbered IEEE references and in-text citations, including conference papers.
Harvard Citation Generator
Formats Harvard references and author-date citations in a defined profile based on Cite Them Right.
Reference Checker
Checks reference lists and citations in APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago, IEEE and Harvard for structure, missing details, duplicates, order and mismatched citations.

Related guides

The reasoning behind the tool, explained step by step.

How to choose a citation style
Who decides which citation style you use, how the main styles differ, and what to do when instructions are missing or conflict.
MLA 9 Citation and Works Cited Guide
Learn how MLA 9 builds Works Cited entries from a source and its container, how in-text citations point to them, and what to do when details are missing.
Chicago Author-Date Citations
Learn Chicago's author-date system: how text citations such as (Yu 2020, 45) point to a reference list, how to cite books, journal articles and web pages, and how it differs from notes and bibliography.
Chicago Notes and Bibliography
Learn Chicago's notes-and-bibliography system: full notes, shortened notes and bibliography entries for books, journal articles and web pages, and how it differs from author-date.
IEEE Citations and References
Learn IEEE's numeric citation style: how [1], [2] and [3] point to a numbered reference list in citation order, and how to cite books, journal articles, conference papers and web pages.
Harvard Citations and References
Learn Harvard referencing: what it is, why versions differ between universities, how in-text citations such as (Smith, 2015, p. 23) lead to a reference list, and how to reference books, journal articles and web pages.
How to cite a website
What to record when you use a web page, how to handle a missing author or date, when to give an access date, and how the same page is cited in APA, MLA, Chicago, IEEE and Harvard.
Reference list or bibliography?
The difference between a reference list, a Works Cited list and a bibliography, which one APA, MLA, Chicago, IEEE and Harvard use, what each should contain, and how to order it.
How to avoid plagiarism
What counts as plagiarism, including patchwriting and self-plagiarism, how quoting, paraphrasing and citing work together, what similarity reports do and don't show, and habits that prevent it.
How the Reference Checker Works
What ResearchKit's Reference Checker checks in APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago, IEEE and Harvard, how it matches citations to a reference list, what it can't check, and how to read and fix what it reports.
How to manage your references
How to keep track of sources from the start of a project: what details to record for each kind of source, using DOIs, choosing and using a reference manager, organising notes, and checking a generated reference list.