Bibliographic tools

Citation Generator Basics

Need help developing your bibliography?

A citation generator is an online tool that helps you to quickly format your resource information into proper bibliographic form for the bibliography at the end of your paper or presentation. Citation generators help you easily create bibliographic entries in MLA, APA, or Chicago Style for a variety of resource formats, including books, magazines, newspapers, journal articles, and websites.

Citation generators are useful when you only need to prepare citations for a few resources. For larger research projects where you need to organize, manage, share, and/or format numerous resources, consider using a Citation Manager instead.

To quickly generate citations, consider one of the following citation generators:

  • ProQuest Research Companion provide learning Module , Citation Builder and Revision aid

  • Citation Builder formats citations in APA and MLA.

Citation Builder @ NCSU

  • Citation Builder at NCSU provides formatting for the most common resource formats, including whole books; book chapters; newspaper, magazine, and journal articles; and websites.


  • Citation Builder only formats citations in APA 6th, MLA 7th & 8th, Chicago Style. For more styles see some of Citation Machine below.

Easy Bib

  • EasyBib formats resource information in APA, MLA, Chicago/Turabian styles, and has a handy "Autocite" feature to help you look up your resource information and generate citations automatically.

  • MLA 8th is free; all other citation styles require a subscription.

  • EasyBib offers Citation Manager features and online hosting of your bibliographic information if you join the subscription service.

Google Scholar

  • Google Scholar is a powerful research tool for finding scholarly and peer-reviewed resources online. Google Scholar provides information and links to scholarly books, peer-reviewed articles, conference proceedings, dissertations, and more. Additionally, Google Scholar provides citation in MLA and APA Style. You can copy or export the citation to bibliographic manage tool.

Bibliographic manage tool

For large research projects where you need to organize, manage, share, and/or format bibliographic information for numerous resources, consider using a Citation Manager.

A citation manager is a software tool that allows you to collect citation information directly from many databases and websites, organize your citations into collections, and format in-text citations and bibliographic entries directly within your documents, such as Mendeley and Zotero.

Citation managers are best suited to large research projects.

If you only have a few citations that you need to format for your bibliography, consider using a Citation Generator instead.

***Remember, always double-check citations generated by citation management software against the rules of the citation style you are using! Using citation management software is not a substitute for knowing how to cite a source on your own, nor is it an excuse for incorrect or incomplete citations!***