APA Citation Generator

Paste a link, DOI or ISBN, or type a title, and get the reference and the in-text citation in APA 7th edition. Free, with no ads and no account needed.

Check each one against its source before you hand it in.

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Formatted in APA 7th edition.

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Citation Style

American Psychological Association 7th edition

Choose Citation Style

Search from over 10,640 citation styles

Choosing a citation style Check your assignment guidelines or consult your university's style guide. Common styles include APA (sciences and psychology), MLA (humanities), and Chicago (history and arts). When in doubt, ask your instructor.

Learn APA

APA Style is the American Psychological Association’s author-date style, used for papers in psychology, nursing, business, communications, engineering and related fields. Here is how an APA 7 reference is built and what to check before you hand it in.

Read the full APA guide

A reference in APA, part by part

Watson and Crick's 1953 paper on the structure of DNA, as Citation Creation sets it in APA 7th edition.

Watson, J. D., & Crick, F. H. C. (1953). Molecular structure of nucleic acids: A structure for deoxyribose nucleic acid. Nature, 171(4356), 737–738. https://doi.org/10.1038/171737a0
Watson, J. D., & Crick, F. H. C.
surname, then initials
(1953).
the year alone, in brackets
Molecular structure of nucleic acids: A structure for deoxyribose nucleic acid.
sentence case, no italics or quotes
Nature, 171
journal and volume in italics
(4356), 737–738.
issue in brackets, not italic
https://doi.org/10.1038/171737a0
the DOI as a link, no full stop
In brackets, with a page
(Watson & Crick, 1953, p. 737)
In your sentence
Watson and Crick (1953) then (p. 737) after the quotation

Three quick checks

Sentence case in the list

Lower-case every word of an article, book or web page title except the first, the first after a colon, and names.

“&” in brackets, “and” in a sentence

Write (Watson & Crick, 1953) but Watson and Crick (1953), and cite three or more authors as the first one and “et al.”

A page for every quotation

Whenever you quote, add the page to the citation: (Watson & Crick, 1953, p. 737).

The rest, from citing in your text to what changed in the latest edition, is in the APA 7th edition guide.

How to cite each source in APA

Website Journal Article Book Book Chapter Newspaper Article Video Report Thesis/Dissertation

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