Free Academic Citation Generator
Search 250M+ academic works by title, DOI, ISBN, URL, PMID, or author name and generate a ready-to-use citation from verified scholarly metadata. Free, no account required, supports APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, Vancouver, IEEE, ABNT, and 40+ curated styles.
No signup · No credit card · Works in your browser
What to do next
How it works
Step 1
Type your topic or query
Enter a research topic, author name, or keywords. CiteMe searches 250M+ works across OpenAlex, Semantic Scholar, PubMed, and more.
Step 2
Choose your style
Select from 60+ citation styles including APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, ABNT, IEEE, and Vancouver.
Step 3
Copy your citation
Get a formatted reference and in-text citation ready to paste into your paper. Export to BibTeX or RIS.
When to use topic search vs. identifier lookup
Identifier lookup (DOI, ISBN, PMID) is faster and more accurate because the metadata comes directly from the registration registry. Use topic search when you do not yet have an identifier — for example, when citing a paper you heard about in a lecture, a book you saw on a shelf, or a paper that predates the DOI era. Topic search in CiteMe queries 250M+ works across OpenAlex, Semantic Scholar, CrossRef, PubMed, and arXiv.
How CiteMe avoids hallucinated citations
AI-only citation tools are prone to hallucination — generating citations for papers that do not exist, inventing DOIs, or misattributing authors. This is especially common with obscure sources, non-English papers, and pre-print repositories. CiteMe avoids hallucination by only returning citations for works found in real scholarly databases. If a paper cannot be located, the tool surfaces the gap instead of inventing a reference. This makes CiteMe a safer choice when your course prohibits AI citation tools, or when accuracy is critical (theses, journal submissions, legal or medical work).
Verified metadata sources
CiteMe aggregates metadata from OpenAlex (250M+ scholarly works), CrossRef (the DOI registration agency, covering most published articles), Semantic Scholar (AI-enriched paper records), PubMed (biomedical literature), Google Books (books and chapters), arXiv (pre-prints in physics, math, and CS), bioRxiv (life-sciences pre-prints), Unpaywall (open-access versions), and OpenCitations. Each query uses the best source for the source type — journal articles resolve through CrossRef, medical papers through PubMed, books through Google Books and ISBN registries.
Supported citation styles
Need it in a specific citation style?
Format the result in the style your paper requires — APA, MLA, Harvard, Vancouver, Chicago, or IEEE.
APA Citation Generator
Author-date format for psychology, social sciences, and education.
MLA Citation Generator
Works Cited format for humanities and literature.
Harvard Referencing Generator
Author-date common in UK and Australian universities.
Vancouver Citation Generator
Numbered references for medicine and biomedical research.
Chicago Citation Generator
Notes-bibliography or author-date for history and the arts.
IEEE Citation Generator
Bracketed numbers for engineering and computer science.
More ways to look up sources
Also try
Frequently asked questions
What can I search with this free citation generator?
Does CiteMe generate citations from real sources or AI guesses?
Which citation styles does this citation generator support?
Can I export the citation after generating it?
How is this different from ZoteroBib, MyBib, or Scribbr?
Can I search by paper title if I do not have a DOI?
Does the citation generator work for medical articles from PubMed?
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