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Citation Generator for APA, MLA, Harvard and ISO 690

Pick a style and a source type, fill in the details – you get the reference list entry with correct italics (copy it formatted or as plain text) and the matching in-text citation. Every rule follows the official style guidance.

One person per line as “Last name, First name”. Organisations without a comma, e.g. “World Health Organization”.
e.g. 2020 – for web pages ideally the full date: 2020-05-05
for chapters: the chapter title
optional; added after a colon
only from the 2nd edition on, e.g. 3
only DIN ISO 690 gives the place
with or without https://doi.org/
only needed if there is no DOI
the day you viewed the online source
optional, e.g. 12 or 12–14
Your inputs are saved in this browser only.

Reference list APA 7

Levenson, H., Jinich, S., Vaz, A., & Rousmaniere, T. (2025). Deliberate practice in emotionally focused couple therapy. American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000436-000

Result

Parenthetical in-text citation
(Levenson et al., 2025, p. 12)
Narrative in-text citation
Levenson et al. (2025, p. 12)
Entry as plain text
Levenson, H., Jinich, S., Vaz, A., & Rousmaniere, T. (2025). Deliberate practice in emotionally focused couple therapy. American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000436-000
Rules applied
  • APA book: title in italics, edition in parentheses after it, publisher without location, no full stop after the DOI.
  • APA: always give the DOI as a link, https://doi.org/…
  • APA: last name, initials; “&” before the final name (with a comma even for two authors); list up to 20 authors.
  • APA in-text: (Author, year, p.) – two authors joined by “&” in parentheses and “and” in running text; three or more use “et al.” from the first citation; “p.” or “pp.” for pages.
  • APA uses sentence case for titles (first word, first word after a colon and proper nouns capitalised) – the generator keeps your capitalisation as entered.
Language: APA terms (“p.”, “Eds.”, “Retrieved … from”) are given in English as in the Publication Manual, 7th ed.

How it is calculated

How the generator builds an entry

Every citation style arranges the same building blocks – who (author), when (year), what (title) and where (publisher, journal, URL) – in its own order and punctuation. The “larger” work is always in italics: the book title, the journal name, or the edited book for a chapter. Article and chapter titles are plain (APA, DIN) or in quotation marks (MLA, Harvard).

How to cite a source

  1. Choose the citation style: APA 7, MLA 9, Harvard (Cite Them Right) or DIN ISO 690.
  2. Choose the source type (book, journal article, web page, chapter in an edited book) and fill in authors, year, title and the other details.
  3. Copy the reference-list entry; the parenthetical and narrative in-text citations are shown below it.

Example: one book in four styles

Source: four authors, 2025, published by the American Psychological Association (taken from APA’s official reference examples).

StyleReference listIn-text
APA 7Levenson, H., Jinich, S., Vaz, A., & Rousmaniere, T. (2025). Deliberate practice in emotionally focused couple therapy. American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000436-000(Levenson et al., 2025, p. 12)
MLA 9Levenson, Hanna, et al. Deliberate Practice in Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy. American Psychological Association, 2025, https://doi.org/10.1037/0000436-000.(Levenson et al. 12)
Harvard (CTR)Levenson, H. et al. (2025) Deliberate practice in emotionally focused couple therapy. American Psychological Association.(Levenson et al., 2025, p. 12)
DIN ISO 690LEVENSON, H., S. JINICH, A. VAZ und T. ROUSMANIERE, 2025. Deliberate practice in emotionally focused couple therapy [online]. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Verfügbar unter: https://doi.org/10.1037/0000436-000(Levenson et al., 2025, S. 12)

Step by step in APA: 1. invert the names and shorten first names to initials (Hanna Levenson → Levenson, H.), 2. put “&” before the last name, 3. year in parentheses, 4. title in italics and sentence case, 5. publisher without location, 6. DOI as a link with no full stop after it. In the text, three or more authors become “Levenson et al.”.

Key differences

APA 7MLA 9Harvard (CTR)DIN ISO 690
In-text(Smith & Jones, 2020, p. 12)(Smith and Jones 12)(Smith and Jones, 2020, p. 12)(Smith und Jones, 2020, S. 12)
“et al.”3+ authors3+ authors4+ authors (also in the list)in-text 4+; the list names all
First namesinitialsin fullinitialsinitials, SURNAME in capitals
Place of publicationnononoyes

Harvard is not one fixed standard but a family of author–date styles, and many universities publish their own variant. This generator follows Cite Them Right, as set out by the Open University Library. DIN ISO 690 is the German edition of ISO 690; the standard fixes the elements and their order, while punctuation and italics here follow the guide of the THM university library (Technische Hochschule Mittelhessen). If your department issues its own style sheet, that takes precedence.

Capitalisation of titles

APA wants sentence case in the reference list (only the first word, the first word after a colon and proper nouns capitalised), MLA wants title case (all major words capitalised). The generator deliberately keeps your capitalisation: an automatic conversion would break proper nouns and German nouns.

Useful for essays and theses: the word counter, the case converter for titles and text compare to check two drafts.

Frequently asked questions

How do I enter several authors?

One person per line as “Last name, First name”, e.g. “Smith, Anna”. The generator turns first names into initials where the style requires it and adds “&”, “and” or “und” and “et al.” itself. Enter organisations such as “World Health Organization” without a comma.

How do I keep the italics in Word or Google Docs?

Use “Copy with formatting”: the entry goes to the clipboard as rich text with italics, ready to paste into Word, Google Docs or LibreOffice. “Copy as plain text” gives you unformatted text, e.g. for reference managers or emails.

DOI or URL – which one goes in the reference?

If a work has a DOI (Digital Object Identifier, starting with “10.”), it takes priority over a URL because it stays valid. APA, MLA and Cite Them Right write it as a link, https://doi.org/…; a URL is only needed when there is no DOI.

Do I need an access date?

In APA only for pages whose content is designed to change and is not archived. In MLA it is optional, mainly for undated pages. Cite Them Right requires it for online sources without page numbers (“Accessed: …”), and the DIN ISO 690 guide for web pages (“[Zugriff am: …]”).

Why does the DIN ISO 690 entry stay in German?

DIN ISO 690 is the German national edition of ISO 690, and its guides use German terms such as “Hg.” (editor), “Auflage” (edition), “S.” (page) and “Zugriff am” (accessed). For English-language papers, choose APA, MLA or Harvard instead.

Sources and legal basis

As of:

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