Verified metadata from Crossref & OpenLibrary — we never fabricate sources.
Not sure what to paste? See how to cite a website, book, or journal article.
Example · Chicago
Tian, Jiaqiang, Yujie Wang, and Zonghai Chen. 2021. "An Improved Single Particle Model for Lithium-Ion Batteries Based on Main Stress Factor Compensation." Journal of Cleaner Production 278: 123456. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.123456.
In-text: (Tian et al. 2021)
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How Chicago citations work
The Chicago Manual of Style, from the University of Chicago Press, has two separate systems. Notes-Bibliography is the norm in history, the arts, and the humanities; Author-Date is used in the natural and social sciences. MakeCitation supports both.
- Notes-Bibliography: each citation is a numbered footnote or endnote with full first names (Jiaqiang Tian, Yujie Wang, and Zonghai Chen, …), and a bibliography at the end lists the sources alphabetically.
- Author-Date: a short citation in the text, such as (Tian et al. 2021), with no comma before the year, keyed to an alphabetical reference list.
- In both lists the first author is inverted (Tian, Jiaqiang) and co-authors are written first name first.
- Article titles go in quotation marks and journal names in italics.
Instant DOI to Citation
Don't waste time typing. Just paste the DOI, ISBN, or URL, and our system will fetch the exact metadata to build a flawless reference.
In-Text Citation Generator
Every reference you create comes with a perfectly formatted in-text citation, ready to be copied and pasted directly into your academic paper.
Batch Citation Style Converter
Have a messy list of sources? Paste your entire bibliography and let our AI automatically correct punctuation, italicize journal names, and format your references in seconds. Every entry is checked against Crossref, and anything we can't confirm is clearly flagged, not silently guessed.
Frequently asked questions
Still stuck? See how to cite a website, a book, or a journal article, or write to support@makecitation.org.
Should I use Chicago Notes-Bibliography or Author-Date?
Follow your instructor or journal. With no instruction, humanities papers (history, art, literature) usually use Notes-Bibliography, and science or social-science papers use Author-Date.
Is Chicago the same as Turabian?
Turabian is the student version of Chicago. The citation rules are almost identical; Turabian adds guidance on formatting papers, theses, and dissertations.
Can I generate a citation directly from a DOI or ISBN?
Yes. Paste a DOI or ISBN and MakeCitation fetches the metadata automatically from Crossref and OpenLibrary, so you don't have to type out authors, titles, or publication details by hand.
Does this tool make up sources like some AI chatbots do?
No. For single-source lookups, every detail comes from verified academic databases, never from the AI's memory. The AI only handles formatting — it never invents authors, dates, or DOIs.
Can I convert a whole reference list to a different citation style?
Yes. Paste your existing list into the batch tool, choose a new style, and MakeCitation normalizes every entry — punctuation, italics, and order — to match it.
Can I remove duplicate references and sort my bibliography alphabetically?
Yes. Batch formatting can remove duplicate entries and sort your list alphabetically by author with one click, for the styles where alphabetical order applies.
Can I export my citations to Word with correct formatting?
Premium accounts can download a .docx file with hanging indents and italics already applied, ready to drop into your paper.
Is there a citation generator for legal (OSCOLA) or medical (Vancouver, CSE) sources?
Yes. Alongside APA, MLA, Chicago, and IEEE, MakeCitation supports Harvard, Vancouver, OSCOLA, ASA, Turabian, and CSE — covering law, medicine, and the social sciences.
What happens if a source's metadata is missing or incomplete?
MakeCitation only fills in details it can verify from Crossref or OpenLibrary. If a field like the publication date is missing from the source itself, we won't guess — you'll be prompted to add it manually, so your citation stays accurate.