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QUICK PEEKREFERENCE FORMATTER

Cite a journal article in APA, MLA, Chicago and three more styles.

Fill in a journal article's details once and get its reference in APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago author-date, Harvard, IEEE and Vancouver, each with its own author-list rules and italics. Copy the style you need, or share a link to the formatted reference.

Format a referenceAll quick peeks
NO ACCOUNT · RUNS IN YOUR BROWSER · ABOUT 30 SECONDS
SLEEP MEDICINE REVIEWS · 2015
Screen time and sleep among school-aged children and adolescents
doi 10.1016/j.smrv.2014.07.007✓ VERIFIED
BLOG · 2021
10 ways your phone is ruining your sleep
✕ NO DOI · NOT CITED
ILLUSTRATION OF THE WORKSPACE'S SOURCE CHECK
FIG 1THE PEEK

Fill in the article, copy the style you need.

A real article is pre-filled (Hale & Guan, 2015). Replace it with yours; every style updates as you type.

Fig 1JOURNAL ARTICLE · 6 STYLES
TYPE THE TITLE IN SENTENCE CASE · MLA AND CHICAGO CONVERT IT TO TITLE CASE
YOUR REFERENCE IN 6 STYLES2 AUTHORS
THE LINK CONTAINS YOUR INPUTS AND REOPENS THIS RESULT
APA 7 · SELECTED
Hale, L., & Guan, S. (2015). Screen time and sleep among school-aged children and adolescents: A systematic literature review. Sleep Medicine Reviews, 21, 50–58. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smrv.2014.07.007
Title kept as typed: APA uses sentence case.
MLA 9
Hale, Lauren, and Stanley Guan. “Screen Time and Sleep among School-Aged Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Literature Review.” Sleep Medicine Reviews, vol. 21, 2015, pp. 50–58, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smrv.2014.07.007.
CHICAGO (AUTHOR-DATE)
Hale, Lauren, and Stanley Guan. 2015. “Screen Time and Sleep among School-Aged Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Literature Review.” Sleep Medicine Reviews 21: 50–58. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smrv.2014.07.007.
HARVARD
Hale, L. and Guan, S. (2015) ‘Screen time and sleep among school-aged children and adolescents: A systematic literature review’, Sleep Medicine Reviews, 21, pp. 50–58. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smrv.2014.07.007.
IEEE
L. Hale and S. Guan, “Screen time and sleep among school-aged children and adolescents: A systematic literature review,” Sleep Medicine Reviews, vol. 21, pp. 50–58, 2015, doi: 10.1016/j.smrv.2014.07.007.
IEEE abbreviates journal titles (e.g. Sleep Med. Rev.); the full title is kept here.
VANCOUVER
Hale L, Guan S. Screen time and sleep among school-aged children and adolescents: A systematic literature review. Sleep Medicine Reviews. 2015;21:50-8. doi:10.1016/j.smrv.2014.07.007
Vancouver uses NLM journal abbreviations (e.g. Sleep Med Rev); the full title is kept here.
This peek formats what you type; it doesn't check it. In the MoreMind workspace, the DOI and the metadata (authors, year, journal, pages) are verified against the publisher's record before a source can enter your draft.
COPY GIVES PLAIN TEXT · RE-APPLY ITALICS IF YOUR EDITOR DROPS THEM
RUNS ENTIRELY IN YOUR BROWSER — NOTHING IS UPLOADED.
FIG 2HOW TO USE

How to use the reference formatter

  1. 01 →
    Enter the article
    Authors one per line as Last, First (or Last, F. M.), then the title in sentence case, year, journal, volume, issue, pages and DOI.
  2. 02 →
    Compare the six styles
    APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago author-date, Harvard, IEEE and Vancouver update as you type, with each style's author rules and italics.
  3. 03
    Copy or share
    Copy the style you need as plain text (re-apply italics if your editor drops them), or share a link to all six.
MethodWHAT THE CODE DOES

How it works: the method

Author names are split into family name and given names; initials are taken from each given name, and hyphenated names keep the hyphen (Jean-Paul becomes J.-P.). Each style then applies its own pattern:

APA 7 Family, I. I., & Family, I. (Year). Title. Journal, Vol(Issue), pages. https://doi.org/… MLA 9 Family, Given, and Given Family. “Title.” Journal, vol. V, no. N, Year, pp. pages, https://doi.org/…. Chicago Family, Given, and Given Family. Year. “Title.” Journal V (N): pages. https://doi.org/…. Harvard Family, I. and Family, I. (Year) ‘Title’, Journal, V(N), pp. pages. Available at: https://doi.org/…. IEEE I. Family and I. Family, “Title,” Journal, vol. V, no. N, pp. pages, Year, doi: …. Vancouver Family II, Family I. Title. Journal. Year;V(N):pages. doi:…

MLA and Chicago titles are put in headline case: words are capitalised except short function words (a, an, and, of, the, in, on, to, with and similar) in the middle of the title; the first word, the last word and the word after a colon are always capitalised, and words that already contain capitals (DNA, iPhone) are left alone. Vancouver page ranges are shortened (50–58 becomes 50-8).

ExampleHALE & GUAN · 2015

Worked example

Hale, L., & Guan, S. (2015), a real review in Sleep Medicine Reviews, is pre-filled. Three of the six results:

APA 7 Hale, L., & Guan, S. (2015). Screen time and sleep among school-aged children and adolescents: A systematic literature review. Sleep Medicine Reviews, 21, 50–58. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smrv.2014.07.007 MLA 9 Hale, Lauren, and Stanley Guan. “Screen Time and Sleep among School-Aged Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Literature Review.” Sleep Medicine Reviews, vol. 21, 2015, pp. 50–58, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smrv.2014.07.007. Vancouver Hale L, Guan S. Screen time and sleep among school-aged children and adolescents: A systematic literature review. Sleep Medicine Reviews. 2015;21:50-8. doi:10.1016/j.smrv.2014.07.007

Note how MLA converts the title to headline case while APA keeps it as typed, and Vancouver shortens the page range. In the tool, journal names and APA volume numbers are also set in italics.

FIG 3THE FULL WORKSPACE

What the full workspace adds.

Fig 3IN MOREMIND
  • ✓Checks every DOI and its metadata against the publisher's record before a source can appear in your draft
  • ✓2,500+ citation styles, including your department's variant
  • ✓Websites and books as well as journal articles, or start from just a DOI
  • ✓Verified sources suggested for the claims in your draft, with in-text citations and a bibliography
  • ✓You choose which sources to cite; MoreMind never adds one you haven't approved

You still write the argument.

MoreMind handles the mechanics around your work (sources, data, figures and formatting) so your time goes into the thinking. Every result is something you check and decide on.

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FIG 4QUESTIONS

Formatting references: common questions

Which author-list rules does it follow?

APA 7 lists up to 20 authors with “&” before the last (21 or more: the first 19, an ellipsis, then the last). MLA 9 uses “and” for two authors and “et al.” from three. Chicago author-date lists up to 10 (from 11: the first 7 and “et al.”). Harvard (Cite Them Right) lists up to 3, then “et al.”. IEEE lists up to 6, then the first author and “et al.”. Vancouver lists up to 6, then the first 6 and “et al.”.

Why doesn't it change my title's capitalisation for APA?

APA wants sentence case, but only you know which words are proper nouns, so the title is kept exactly as typed for APA, Harvard, IEEE and Vancouver. MLA and Chicago use title case, which can be applied by rule, so those two are converted. IEEE and Vancouver also expect abbreviated journal titles; this formatter keeps the full title.

How is the DOI written in each style?

As a link, https://doi.org/…, in APA, MLA, Chicago and Harvard (Harvard adds “Available at:”), and with a “doi:” prefix in IEEE and Vancouver. Paste the DOI in any form (10.1016/…, doi:10.1016/… or a doi.org link) and the prefix is normalised.

Does it check that the reference is real?

No. It formats whatever you type. Checking that the DOI resolves and the metadata matches the publisher's record is what the full MoreMind workspace adds.

Is anything uploaded?

No. Formatting happens in your browser. If you press Share result, the article details are written into the link itself, so anyone who opens it, and our server, which draws the page and its preview image, sees them.
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