Journal Article Citation Generator
A journal article is the one source type where "close enough" isn't good enough, because a journal citation is really a claim that a specific, verifiable record exists. Paste a DOI below and MakeCitation checks it against Crossref, the same database publishers submit records to, and pulls the actual author list, journal title, volume, issue, and page range from that record rather than from whatever you typed.
That distinction matters more now than it used to. General-purpose AI tools will produce a journal citation that looks completely correct, complete with a DOI, and is entirely invented. Students have submitted those. Reviewers have caught them. A verified DOI lookup is the difference between a citation that looks right and one that actually resolves to a real paper.
How the lookup works
Paste a DOI, either bare or as a full doi.org link, and the generator queries Crossref for that exact record. If the DOI resolves and the title on record matches what you pasted, you get a citation built from confirmed data: full author list, full journal title rather than the abbreviated form most databases display, volume, issue, and page range.
If the DOI doesn't resolve, or the title on record doesn't match, you're told directly instead of getting a formatted citation anyway. A DOI that goes nowhere, or points to a different paper than the one you meant, is worth catching before submission, not after a reviewer catches it for you.
No DOI on hand? A title search runs against the same database and recovers the correct DOI and metadata in most cases. That matters because DOIs get mangled constantly in ordinary use: a line break in a Word document, a stray space, a digit transposed while retyping. The paper is usually still findable by title even when its DOI has been damaged along the way.
What changes between styles
The confirmed facts about a journal article don't change between styles. The arrangement does, and so does how aggressively a long author list gets shortened.
| Style | In-text form | Long author lists | Journal name |
|---|---|---|---|
| APA | Parenthetical, author-date | Lists up to 20 authors; beyond that, first 19 plus the last | Full, italicized |
| MLA | Parenthetical, author-page | First author plus “et al.” from 3 authors on | Full, italicized |
| Chicago | Footnote or parenthetical (both supported) | Truncates past a style-specific author count | Full, italicized |
| IEEE | Numbered, bracketed | Typically the full list | Abbreviated, per IEEE convention |
| Harvard | Parenthetical, author-date | Full list, not truncated | Full, italicized |
| Vancouver | Numbered | Truncates past a style-specific author count | Abbreviated (NLM style) |
| ASA | Parenthetical, author-date | Truncates past a style-specific author count | Full, italicized |
| CSE | Numbered or author-date, your choice | Truncates past a style-specific author count | Abbreviated |
The exact author-count thresholds differ by style, and by edition within the same style, which is exactly the kind of detail that's easy to get wrong from memory and gets handled automatically once you're working from a confirmed record instead of retyping an author list off a search result page.
Live example · doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.123456
APA 7th Edition
Tian, J., Wang, Y., & Chen, Z. (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)
MLA 9th Edition
Tian, Jiaqiang, et al. "An improved single particle model for lithium-ion batteries based on main stress factor compensation." Journal of Cleaner Production, vol. 278, 2021, pp. 123456.
In-text: (Tian et al.)
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)
IEEE
[1] J. Tian, Y. Wang, and Z. Chen, "An improved single particle model for lithium-ion batteries based on main stress factor compensation," Journal of Cleaner Production, vol. 278, pp. 123456, 2021.
In-text: [1]
Harvard
Tian, J., Wang, Y., and Chen, Z. (2021) 'An improved single particle model for lithium-ion batteries based on main stress factor compensation', Journal of Cleaner Production, 278, pp.123456. doi: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.123456.
In-text: (Tian, Wang, and Chen, 2021)
Vancouver
1. Tian J, Wang Y, Chen Z. An improved single particle model for lithium-ion batteries based on main stress factor compensation. Journal of Cleaner Production. 2021;278:123456.
In-text: (1)
OSCOLA (4th edn)
Jiaqiang Tian, Yujie Wang, and Zonghai Chen, 'An improved single particle model for lithium-ion batteries based on main stress factor compensation' [2021] Journal of Cleaner Production 123456.
In-text: OSCOLA cites in footnotes, not inline — insert the reference below as a footnote.
ASA 7th Edition
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.
In-text: (Tian et al. 2021)
Turabian (Author-Date)
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.
In-text: (Tian, Wang, and Chen 2021)
CSE (9th edn)
1. Tian J, Wang Y, Chen Z. An improved single particle model for lithium-ion batteries based on main stress factor compensation. Journal of Cleaner Production. 2021;278:123456. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.123456
In-text: [1]
Common mistakes
Pasting the bare DOI instead of the full link. A DOI like 10.1016/j.jsr.2023.100412 and its full form at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsr.2023.100412 point to the same record, but most current style guides expect the resolvable link in the finished reference, not the bare identifier sitting on its own.
Carrying over the abbreviated journal name. Database search results, PubMed especially, display journals under a standard abbreviation. Most citation styles want the full, spelled-out journal title in the reference list: abbreviating it because that's how it showed up in a search is a common, easy-to-miss error that survives multiple proofreads because it looks intentional.
Citing a preprint after the peer-reviewed version exists. A paper posted to arXiv or bioRxiv often gets a second, different DOI once it's formally published in a journal. If the peer-reviewed version exists, citing the preprint points readers to a superseded draft. The two records describe the same underlying work but aren't interchangeable in a reference list.
Trusting a DOI that doesn't actually match the paper. Reference lists assembled by copying and pasting across drafts occasionally end up with a DOI belonging to a different article than the one described in the citation. It reads as fine at a glance and only breaks when someone actually clicks through, which is exactly why verifying it before submission is worth the few seconds it takes.
Frequently asked questions
What if I only have the article title, not the DOI?
The title-search fallback looks it up for you. Most journal articles indexed anywhere reputable can be found this way, and you get the same verified record you'd get from pasting the DOI directly.
Why does the journal name look different from what I searched?
Search engines and databases often display an abbreviated journal name to save space. The citation itself uses the full title on record, since that's what most styles require.
Does switching styles re-check the source again?
No. Once a DOI is verified, switching between all ten supported styles only changes the formatting. It doesn't re-query Crossref or cost anything extra.
Try it
Paste a DOI below to generate the reference in all ten supported styles at once, along with the in-text citation for each. No DOI on hand? The title-search fallback will look for it before you need to fall back to manual entry. Working from a book instead? The book citation generator does the same thing starting from an ISBN. Citing a webpage? See the website citation generator.
✓Verified metadata from Crossref & OpenLibrary — we never fabricate sources.
Not sure what to paste? See how to cite a website, book, or journal article.
Reference
Morozov, D., & Jensen, O. (2024). Biochar application for heavy metal immobilization in contaminated industrial soils. Journal of Soil Remediation, 18, 100412. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsr.2023.100412
In-text
(Morozov & Jensen, 2024)
1,000 of 1,000 characters remaining (free preview) · Sign in for 5,000 characters, or upgrade to Premium for unlimited.