MLA Style

Citation generators

Citation generators are application software that intend to help researchers collect bibliographic references quickly and easily, cite them accurately, organize them effectively, and share them with other researchers.

There are some freely available tools, to help you prepare your citations. Use any of the tools, but do it with caution, as the citations they generate are not perfect. Usually, you will need to edit them to improve their capitalization, properly format the name of authors, or add missing elements.

1. Citation generators on the web

There are citation generators openly available on the web. Their features vary, from generating citations to saving bibliographies, and producing in-text citations.

2. Citation generators in research tools

Research tools like discoveries and databases have integrated citation generators in their systems and automatically produce citations for the sources they contain.

a.  Discovery , the library's powerful research tool, generates citations in 12 citation styles.

Click the "Cite" tab, which appears under the description of a source.

Click the drop down menu to select a citation style.

Once you select a citation style, the citation appears on the screen. You can copy and paste it in your bibliography.

b. Google Scholar   provides citations in MLA, APA, Chicago, Harvard, and Vancouver styles.

Click the "double quotation mark" symbol.  which appears under the description of a source. This reveals the ready-made citations.

Select the one you need by clicking it. Then, copy and paste it in your bibliography.

c. Citation Builder , the citation generator of Research Companion supports MLA & APA styles.

There are three steps to generate a citation: a) enter the title of the source, b) fill out the fields of the form that the tool provides, c) copy and paste the citation in your bibliography.

d. Most databases appearing in the A-Z database list, generate citations for the sources they contain.

Look for icons like the ones that follow:

When you select such an indication, databases generate a citation for the particular source, usually, in several citation styles. You can copy and paste the one you need in your bibliography.