Free academic citation generator

Generate citations in seconds.

Search an article, paper, book, DOI, URL, author, or title. BrainyBrief formats the source in APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, Vancouver, AMA, or IEEE, then lets you copy or export the citation for free.

Generate a citation See supported styles
Citation tool

Search a source, then review the details.

Use Crossref-backed metadata lookup for scholarly sources. If a source database is incomplete, you can edit the details before copying or exporting your citation.

Tip: DOI search is usually most accurate. Example: 10.1038/s41586-020-2649-2

Edit source details

Use this when a database result is incomplete or when you need to cite a report, webpage, or older source.

Citation styles

One citation generator for common academic formats.

BrainyBrief supports the styles most students, researchers, educators, and writers need when turning source material into clean references.

Academic styles

  • APA 7 for psychology, education, and social sciences
  • MLA 9 for humanities and literature
  • Chicago for notes, bibliography, and history writing
  • Harvard author-date references

Medical and technical styles

  • Vancouver numbered medical references
  • AMA for medicine and health sciences
  • IEEE numbered citations for engineering and computing

Research exports

  • RIS for Zotero, Mendeley, EndNote, and many libraries
  • BibTeX for LaTeX and technical writing
  • CSL JSON and EndNote XML for structured reference data
How it works

Search, review, cite.

  • Search scholarly metadata by DOI, title, URL, author, or keyword.
  • Review the detected authors, year, title, journal, pages, DOI, and source type.
  • Choose a citation style and copy the formatted reference instantly.
Built for accuracy

Edit before you use it.

Source databases can be incomplete. BrainyBrief lets you inspect and adjust metadata before relying on the final citation, which is especially useful for reports, webpages, preprints, and older sources.

Beyond formatting

Connect citations to reading.

Install BrainyBrief to generate citations from webpages, PDFs, YouTube videos, transcripts, summaries, source snippets, and research notes while keeping the evidence close.

FAQ

Questions about the free citation generator.

Is this citation generator free?

Yes. Searching, editing, copying, and exporting citations from this page is free.

Does it support APA, MLA, and Chicago?

Yes. BrainyBrief supports APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, Vancouver, AMA, and IEEE citation styles.

Can I cite a website or report?

Yes. You can manually enter a website, report, book, book chapter, journal article, or conference paper if automatic search does not find the source.

Can I export citations to Zotero or EndNote?

Yes. Download RIS for broad reference manager support, BibTeX for LaTeX workflows, CSL JSON for structured citation data, or EndNote XML.

Cite sources while you read.

BrainyBrief for Chrome and Android helps you summarize sources, ask source-aware questions, generate citations, map research, translate summaries, and export notes from the same research workflow.

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