Top 5 Free Online Apa Citation Generator

APA style can be a hard nut to crack especially if you just started, that’s where free online APA citation generator starts becoming interesting. Understanding where to place your comma, initials, and colons can bore and wear you down.

And you might prefer watching TikTok or Netflix to attempting a boring APA citation. I got your back, I know how it feels.

There are 100s of references in the 7th edition of the American Psychological Association, there is a website and blogs to guide you through. But, even though all of these are there it is still overwhelming and confusing.

There is a text format you need to follow which is different from your normal text.

Over the years, there have been a huge amount of mistakes from researchers using APA format for their scientific free online academic journals. A massive 90.9% of authors made more than two mistakes when writing their references.

And most of these mistakes are coming from improper use of commas, placing the full stops, italics, and ampersands wrongly. Also, 86.3% of researchers wrongly placed their running head or don’t have a running head.

Some researchers didn’t add or poorly added page numbers. Some other researchers didn’t add an abstract or didn’t properly add it.

Some don’t even understand the importance of keywords and thereby neglect them. Then, more than 86% were confused about how APA headings work.

Headings can really be difficult to observe.

You see, you’re not alone here, free online APA citation generator is beginning to sound like the best option one can depend upon, right? APA format is not something you just wake, yawn, eat and start writing.

It is a different ball game that has so many rules for each format. The punctuation has to be carefully and properly placed, the heading has its own format.

You need to know when to italicize, the margins are not the same as normal writing, spacing comes with specific instructions. Further, your grammar and spelling have to be correct and, free online writing courses can help you out. 

That means you have to be top-notch in English or your preferred language before you can produce a mistake-free APA citation. Also, you have to be detailed in every single word you write, which makes it even more difficult.

In addition, every single reference you made, whether from a book, a website, an article, has its own special direction. 

For instance, you have to italicize a book reference and set the case to be in paragraph case. But, for a reference journal, you have to set the case to the title case.

The truth is, when you’re so focused on all these patterns and formats, it reduces creativity. That is, you can’t easily express your thoughts in writing just because you want to obey some rules, especially if you’re not yet experienced. 

With all these complications, why shouldn’t someone depend on a free online APA citation generator?

One would have said if this citation is that complicated why then do we have to go through the stress of writing an APA formatted journal. 

The behavioral and social science fields use APA citation. They prefer the American Psychological Association’s steady reference pattern.

Also, the pattern is written in such a way your work is viewed as original. You are also made to give full credit to where your work is coming from.

And, it will make the reader easily locate the source. The reader can even choose to do more research or consult the source for help.

You see, the APA style of writing scientific journals is needed.

What is an APA Citation Generator?

For you to fully understand what an APA citation generator is, we need to know what a citation is all about. 

Citation is giving credit to those sources you used in your journal or academic work. If a source helped you through your writing in your research work, you are meant to acknowledge their help in your research work.

There is an exemption, where it is something that is generally known. For instance, Alexander Fleming discovered Penicillin.

When you don’t cite your work, it will lead to plagiarism, and there is a penalty for that. The worst of it is that it might lead to expulsion from the school.

A free online APA citation generator is a software or website that is dedicated to automatically generating references and citations in APA format for free. The best APA citation generator is designed to make sure your fact is not deleted for a wrong citation. 

Further, you should know that these citation generators depend on the information you provide to them. They are AI not humans that can understand citation information.

So if you mistakenly give a free online APA citation generator the wrong information, it will lead to an error. So don’t assume the generator will figure it out, and rightly correct the problem.

Even the best citation generator can’t help you if you can’t give it the right information. Try your best to go through your citation before submitting it to the generator.

Go through the authors’ names, especially if it is a name you’re not familiar with, make sure the letters are rightly written. Also, go through the source over again, because generators can’t differentiate between the source you were intending to use and the one you mistakenly used.

Wrong input of sources can affect the page numbers and even the published date. If it is your first time using the free online APA citation generator, spend extra time to compare your work with another published work.

If you give the right information to the generator, it is rare for them to make a mistake. But to verify the citation generator is best for you beyond a reasonable doubt, try and cross-check your work again.

Why do I need an APA citation generator?

Days are gone when you have to force yourself to study the latest edition of APA citation, then maintain a strict format of writing. Now, with the help of a free online APA citation generator, you can do more within less time.

Here are some of the reasons you’ll need an APA citation generator;

Saves Time

Nowadays, with the help of a free online APA citation generator, you can spend little time on your citation, especially as a beginner. Documenting individual sources on your own takes time, and making sure they are written in APA style is another complicated work that takes time too.

“Time,” they said, “is money,” so why spend the whole day writing a journal without any help?

No Cost

The free online APA citation generator comes with no charges. So, you see, there is nothing to lose.

There is no excuse not to try it. If you use it and find out that it didn’t fit in with your taste, you are free to dump it and learn how to manually cite your works.

But most researchers that have used the top free online APA citation generator are testifying to its excellence. All you have to do is fill in some details regarding the source, then the magic will be done.

Easy to Complete

Writing an APA citation on your own can be hard to do, mainly if you’re not experienced enough in it. A free online APA citation generator saves you the headache of doing this work alone.

Avoid Errors

With a manual method of APA citation style, you can easily make mistakes. The statistics I gave you earlier prove that.

But, this is avoided with a free online APA citation generator. And, your professor will reward you very well because of maintaining APA style.

Free Online Apa Citation Generator

Here is the list of the top 5 free online APA citation generator;

  • Scribbr APA Citation Generator
  • Formatically
  • Cite This For Me (APA Citation Generator
  • ZoteroBib APA Citation Generator
  • MyBib APA Citation Generator

1. Scribbr APA Citation Generator

Scribbr is a free online APA citation generator that has been used by millions of researchers. Also, the experts have given a “go-ahead order” to depend on it for your citation.

By just inputting your source’s title or website, or ISBN you can easily generate a valid APA generator at the snap of your finger. You don’t need a special kind of knowledge or programming training to know how to use Scribbr.

It’s as easy as browsing online. Also, Scribbr has a tutorial guide on the homepage on how to use their free online APA citation generator.

Scribbr generator makes sure your points are preserved and not mistaken for inaccurate citation like some other citation generators do. That’s why lots of professors recommend Scribbr citation generators.

Moreover, there are no ads to disturb you while you’re working. Unlike other free tools that disturb you with regular ads, Scribbr reduced distractions to the least.

Scribbr is a free online APA citation generator that has updated its APA edition to the 7th edition. They still have the 6th edition in place, in case some researchers are still using the 6th edition.

If you’re a fan of the LaTex editor, Scribbr made it simple so that you can easily export your work in BibTex format and resume your work in the LaTex editor.

Further, you can easily export your finished work to Word, and it will still maintain a precise indentation and spacing. Scribbr made it simple to automatically save your work, any change made is saved automatically.

Visit Scribbr APA Citation Generator

2. Formatically

In high school, most of us were taught the MLA format of citing our works. But as students in the social science and behavioral department advance to college.

They are forced to change and advance in their citation, they will start using APA and Chicago style. The major difference between MLA style and APA style is MLA (Modern Language Association) is focused on the art and humanities field.

That is research work in theater art, literature, history, philosophy, music, etc. In MLA, the year and other formats are not considered in MLA style.

APA (American Psychological Association) style is focused on those in the science field. The year the source was written is very important to APA styling, this helps the reader know how recent your work is.

But, with Formatically free online APA citation generator, you can make your citing easier. Formatically has a quick tour video that explains to you how to use their generator without stress.

All you need to do is just copy your source (whether URL, blog post, artwork, books, conference paper, Email, etc) and paste it on the search button. And, the magic will be done, instantly.

When you’re done with your citations, you can save your work in Google Drive and Word. There are still more features that will be added soon.

Formatically is a free online APA citation generator that is made to crawl at least 10 sites at once. And they do this in under 11 seconds which takes other generators 11 minutes to achieve.

That’s a lot of time saved for you. Formatically is driven by the goal “to be 10 times better than second best,” and they are proving it in their free citation generator.

For instance, their nearest competitor, EasyBib takes more than 50 clicks to generate 10 citations, whereas Formatically takes only double clicks. Also, for EasyBib to create the same number of citations (10) it takes 11 minutes, but 11 seconds for Formatically.

Visit Formatically Website

3. Cite This For Me (APA Citation Generator)

To save time to focus on more research work and/or studies. Cite This For Me is a free online APA citation generator that makes your work look smarter with few clicks.

With the help of this generator, you’ll avoid plagiarism. Using it doesn’t mean you’re cheating, it just helps you to easily provide the required citation in an APA style.

With Cite This For Me, you can create the two APA format methods;

  • In-text citation
  • Reference list.

Further, Cite This For Me, is not just a free online APA citation generator, there are other citation formats you can select from. For instance, there is the;

  • MLA Format
  • ACS Referencing Generator
  • Harvard Citation Generator
  • Chicago Citation Generator
  • ASA Citation Style
  • IEEE Citation Generator

Visit Cite This For Me APA Citation Generator

4. ZoteroBib APA Citation Generator

With ZoteroBib’s free online APA citation generator, you can easily build any bibliography without installing any software. You can either use your smartphone or system too, you don’t even need to create an account to begin.

This free generator was established by the Zotero team which is a non-profit organization that has zero monetary interest in your personal data. Your data is always safe because you have to store it on your own device.

You don’t need to create an account to use any of their software. Peradventure, you’re demanded to submit any information, it is basically to provide you with what you need.

If you have any issues, Zotero developers or their expert community is ready to respond to you, instantly. Why they use their developers and not customer services is because their developers were those that made their software.

So, they will know the ins and outs of the software you’re using and can direct you wisely. 

Zotero has been around for the past 16 years, and since then they have been improving to make their software a lot better. Including their ZoteroBib free online APA citation generator.

They have always updated their software with new features and are quick to respond to bugs. Moreover, it is open-source, that is, if you understand programming, you can freely make changes to the software to suit your taste.

Further, Zotero offers other writing services that can be of help; 

  • Browser extensions for Chrome, Firefox, and Safari.
  • Word Processor Plugins
  • Organization and Tagging
  • Note-taking
  • Automatic Sync across your device.

There are over 9,000 citation styles supported by ZoteroBib which are prominent ones amongst them. You don’t have to panic over saving your data, it automatically saves, and you can come back to it anytime.

Your bibliography data is stored in your local browser, so be careful when clearing your browser storage or cache. Because you will lose your bibliographies.

Alternatively, this free online APA citation generator made it possible for you to upload and save a link to your copy to zbib.org. Saved links are stored for at least 6 months from when it was saved or last viewed.

Visit ZoteroBib APA Citation Generator Website

5. MyBib APA Citation Generator

This is a free online APA citation generator that is simple and fast to use. All you have to do is;

  • Use the search tool and search for the source you intend to cite.
  • The generator will open all information concerning the source. If you noticed any information was missing, you can effortlessly add it.
  • If you correctly added the right information to your bibliography, be rest assured MyBib will create your citation correctly.
  • When you’re done with adding all the citations, you can go ahead to download the list.

MyBib’s free online APA citation generator has three languages, English, Español, and Português.

Visit MyBib APA Citation Generator

Conclusion

You have seen how complicated the APA style of citation is and how you can mitigate that headache, with a free online APA citation generator, right? APA citation should be a walk in the park with these generators.

Just make sure you input your source information correctly. Once you get this part right, your generator will do the rest.

FAQs

How can I make an APA citation?

Even though APA citation is complicated to follow, it’s not impossible to get perfect work, even as a student. Here is an easy-step to APA citation;

  • You need to double-space all texts
  • On the sides, you need to use an a-inch margin
  • You need to indent the paragraphs in your work
  • After most punctuation marks, you need to use one space.
  • Confirm that your citation title is on the center of the page then your name and college should be below it.
  • Make sure that you’re using a 12-point font in all your work.
  • Ensure to number the pages of your work in the upper right corner.
  • While the “running head” has to be at the upper left corner.

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