Faculty Instructional Technologist

Free Citation Tools

Every academic field has their own citation requirements for writing papers, dissertations, thesis, and publications. The citation style may vary according to disciplines (humanities, social sciences, liberal arts, sciences, etc). Some of the most common citation styles are: American Psychological Association (APA), Modern Language Association (MLA), Scientific Style and Format (CSE), Turabian, Chicago, and Harvard.

In recent years, there has been a surge of “open and free citation machines generators” available to academics, faculty, students, and the public at-large. Citation machine generators are programs developed by companies or individuals with the intent of assisting students and professional researchers with citing their sources accurately and correctly without having to “memorize” the technicality/format.

Some of the free and useful sites for citations are:

  1. Son of Citation Machine – it generates the reference section of your academic writing in the following forms: MLA, APA, Turabian, and Chicago. Developed by David Warlick, an educator.
  2. Bibme – it is a fully automatic bibliography maker for MLA, APA, Chicago, and Turabian. Developed by Carnegie Mellon University.
  3. Mendeley – it is a free reference manager and academic social network that automatically generates bibliographies. You can also access and import papers from anywhere online.
  4. NoodleTools – is easily one of my favorite citation generators for APA, MLA, and Chicago. It’s a bit more tedious but gives you a wider selection options that include periodicals, non-periodicals, electronic materials, unpublished sources, and legal and government sources.
  5. OttoBib – it generates bibliographies automatically and looks up all information by ISBN for you. Currently available for MLA, APA, and Chicago formats. Developed by Seth Godin.
  6. eTurabian – free citation generators for bibliography, footnote, and reference list using ISBN, keywords, or the Digital Object Identifier (DOI) – mostly available in published research papers for Turabian, MLA, and APA formats.
  7. HarvardGenerator – as the title implies is a free citation generator for Harvard Style that is quite intuitive and easy to use.
  8. CiteThisForMe – is another free citation generator for Harvard, APA, MLA, and Turabian formats.
  9. Zotero – helps you organize, collect, cite, and share research sources. For more information on how to use Zotero, visit Zotero Workshops.

There are many more free citation generators but you should pick one that most suit your academic discipline, needs, and objectives. However, if you prefer a book, I recommend A Writer’s Reference by Diane Hacker. It has detailed information for all citation formats and is an easy and quick guide reference.

At Empire State College, we have RefWorks – the main mode of citation generators available for faculty, staff, and students for free. For more information on how to use RefWorks, you can attend the ESC Library Workshops offered by the librarians or contact them directly at librarian@esc.edu for personal consultation.