What is APA referencing?

APA is an author-date style from the American Psychological Association, widely used in psychology, education, nursing, business and the social sciences. You cite the surname and year in your text and list the full details of each source alphabetically at the end.

Does this generator use APA 7?

Yes. It follows the rules of the 7th edition of the APA Publication Manual, including up to 20 authors in the reference list, et al. for three or more authors in citations, and DOIs written as links.

Will the generator change my titles to sentence case?

Only when you ask it to. Titles are kept as you type them or as the publisher records them, which is often title case. Select Sentence case above the title box to convert one, then check proper nouns such as place, company and theory names. Keep journal names in title case, as they appear on the journal.

Do I need a retrieval date for a website?

Usually not. APA 7 only asks for a retrieval date for pages that are designed to change over time and are not archived. For most web pages, the URL is enough.

When do I use et al. in APA?

From the first citation whenever a source has three or more authors, for example (Smith et al., 2021). The reference list itself includes up to 20 authors.

How do I reference a source with no author?

If an organisation published it, use the organisation as the author. If there is genuinely no author, leave the author empty: the title moves to the start of the reference and is used in the in-text citation.

Can it create an APA reference from a DOI?

Yes. Paste the DOI, or a link that contains it, into the autocite box. The generator looks it up in Crossref or DataCite and fills in the details, with the DOI written as a link at the end of the reference as APA 7 requires.

Which sources can I reference?

Books, chapters in edited books, journal articles, web pages, newspaper and magazine articles, reports, theses and dissertations, videos, conference papers, and lecture slides or notes.

Is the generator free?

Yes. It is free to use and needs no sign-up, and your reference list is saved in your own browser only. When you use autocite, the DOI, ISBN, title or link you enter is sent to the lookup services named above, or to our server to read a web page, so that the details can be filled in.

Free APA 7 Referencing Generator | Books, Journals, Web

Free APA Referencing Generator (7th Edition)

Create APA 7 references and in-text citations in seconds. Paste a DOI, ISBN or web link, or search by title, and the details fill in for you. Reference 10 types of source, from books and journal articles to newspapers, theses and videos, then copy your sorted reference list straight into your document, italics included.

Free, no sign-up

Runs in your browser

Works on mobile

How to use the APA referencing generator

1Paste a DOI, ISBN or web link into the autocite box, or type the title of the book or article, and select Find source.
2Check the details that fill in against your source. APA titles need sentence case, so use the Sentence case button if a title comes in with capitals on every word. If nothing is found, choose the source type and fill in the details yourself.
3Copy the reference and the in-text citation, or add the reference to your list.
4Edit or remove any reference in your list. You can also switch between APA 7 and Harvard at any time, and the whole list changes style.
5When your list is complete, copy it into your References page. It is sorted alphabetically for you.

APA 7 reference formats used by this tool

Book, report and web page titles, journal names and journal volume numbers are italic in your reference. The generator adds the italics for you.

Book: Author, A. A. (Year). Title of book (2nd ed.). Publisher. https://doi.org/xxxx
Chapter in an edited book: Author, A. A. (Year). Title of chapter. In E. E. Editor (Ed.), Title of book (pp. first-last). Publisher.
Journal article: Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year). Title of article. Journal Name, Volume(Issue), first-last. https://doi.org/xxxx
Web page: Author or Organisation. (Year). Title of page. Website Name. URL
Report: Organisation. (Year). Title of report. Publisher. URL
Newspaper article: Author, A. A. (Year, Month Day). Title of article. Newspaper Name. URL
Thesis or dissertation: Author, A. A. (Year). Title of thesis [Doctoral dissertation, University]. Database or Repository. URL
Video: Author or Channel. (Year, Month Day). Title of video [Video]. YouTube. URL
Conference paper in proceedings: Author, A. A. (Year). Title of paper. In E. E. Editor (Ed.), Title of proceedings (pp. first-last). Publisher. https://doi.org/xxxx
Lecture slides: Lecturer, A. A. (Year, Month Day). Title of slides [PowerPoint slides]. University or Course Website. URL

Autocite: APA references from a DOI, ISBN or link

APA 7 asks for a DOI wherever a source has one, and a DOI is also the quickest way to build the reference. Paste it into the autocite box and the generator fills in the authors, year, title, journal, volume, issue and pages. An ISBN works the same way for books, and a link works for web pages, news articles and YouTube videos. You can also type a title and choose the right match from the results.

Journal articles, chapters and conference papers come from Crossref and DataCite, the official DOI registries. Books come from Open Library and Google Books. For web pages, our server reads the page once and picks out the title, author, date and site name.

Records are not always complete or in APA format. Titles often arrive in title case, so convert them to sentence case and check proper nouns, and add any missing date or author before you use the reference.

APA in-text citations

Every reference in your list needs at least one matching citation in your text, and every citation needs a matching reference. The generator gives you both forms:

One author: (Smith, 2021) in brackets, or Smith (2021) in a sentence
Two authors: (Smith & Jones, 2021) in brackets, but Smith and Jones (2021) in a sentence
Three or more authors: (Smith et al., 2021), from the very first citation
Group author: (World Health Organization, 2023)
Direct quotes need a page number: (Smith, 2021, p. 45)
No date: (Smith, n.d.)

APA 7 compared with APA 6

If your older notes or a senior student's work use APA 6, these are the changes that catch most people out:

The place of publication is no longer included for books
Up to 20 authors are listed in the reference list, instead of 7
et al. is used from the first citation for three or more authors
DOIs are written as links, for example https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa
"Retrieved from" is only used when a retrieval date is needed

Common APA referencing mistakes

Using title case for book and article titles instead of sentence case
Forgetting the ampersand (&) before the last author in the reference list
Writing "and" inside brackets, or "&" in the running text
Leaving out the italics on the journal name and volume number
Adding "Retrieved from" or an access date when it is not needed
Mixing APA and Harvard punctuation in the same reference list

Check your course guidance

Some departments ask for small changes to APA, for example in how they want secondary sources, lecture slides or unpublished material referenced. Always compare the output with your module handbook or library guide, and follow your department where it differs.

If you would like an expert to check a full reference list or correct citations throughout a draft, our referencing help covers APA, Harvard, OSCOLA, MLA and IEEE.