PDF to Reference List — Pick a Style, Get a Clean List
Upload a PDF, pick APA, ABNT, Vancouver, or any of 39+ curated styles, and download a verified reference list ready to paste into the references section of your paper. Free with a CiteMe account — 10 references per PDF on the free plan.
Your PDF isn’t stored after extraction
What to do next
How it works
Step 1
Upload your PDF
Select or drag-and-drop any academic paper. We extract references, then discard the PDF — nothing is stored on our servers.
Step 2
Pick your citation style
APA, ABNT, Vancouver, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, IEEE — 39+ curated styles. The picker preselects APA; switch any time before downloading.
Step 3
Get your reference list
CiteMe verifies each reference against academic databases, formats them in the style you picked, and downloads a clean .txt file ready to paste into the references section of your paper.
Why use CiteMe for PDF to Reference List?
- PDF Not Stored
- Your PDF is sent to our servers only to extract references, then immediately discarded. We never keep the file.
- Database-Verified
- Each reference checked against CrossRef, OpenAlex, and Semantic Scholar. Verified matches replace the parsed text with canonical metadata.
- 39+ Citation Styles
- APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago, Harvard, Vancouver, IEEE, ABNT (NBR-6023), and more. Same formatter as /search and /cite — output stays consistent.
- Paste-Ready .txt
- Plain-text reference list with one entry per paragraph. Paste directly into Word, Google Docs, Pages, or LaTeX.
Where the reference list goes next
The .txt output is the human-readable bibliography. If your next step is a reference manager (Zotero, EndNote, Mendeley) or LaTeX, prefer the BibTeX or RIS variants below.
- Word / Google Docs / Pages — Paste the .txt content into the bibliography section
- Overleaf / LaTeX — Use as the bibliography body — or pick PDF to BibTeX for `.bib`
- Notion / Obsidian — Paste into a note as a clean reference list
- Reference managers — Use PDF to BibTeX or PDF to RIS to import into Zotero, EndNote, Mendeley
Frequently Asked Questions
How is this different from PDF to BibTeX?
PDF to BibTeX produces a `.bib` file for Overleaf, LaTeX, JabRef, or Zotero/Mendeley import. PDF to Reference List produces the human-readable bibliography text — formatted in APA, ABNT, Vancouver, or any of 39+ styles — that you paste into the references section of your paper. Use BibTeX when your next step is a reference manager; use Reference List when your next step is the manuscript itself.
Which citation styles are supported?
APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago, Harvard, Vancouver (ICMJE), IEEE, ABNT (NBR-6023), and 30+ other curated styles. References are formatted by the same engine that powers /search and /cite, so the output matches the rest of the app.
Is my PDF uploaded to a server?
Yes — your PDF is sent to our servers to extract the bibliography, then discarded immediately after extraction. We keep only the extracted reference text, never the PDF itself.
How is the metadata verified?
After parsing the bibliography, each reference is matched against OpenAlex, CrossRef, and Semantic Scholar. Verified matches replace the parsed text with canonical metadata (correct authors, year, journal, DOI), so the formatted reference list is consistent and complete.
What if a reference is not found in databases?
Unmatched references stay in the list as drafts using the parsed text. They are flagged so you can review them — the formatted output still includes them, just from the original parsed metadata instead of a canonical match.
What can I do for free?
A free CiteMe account includes a starter allowance for extracting references from typical chapters or short papers. Anonymous visitors can still spot-check a single reference before signing up. Pro unlocks larger PDFs, bigger batch saves, and higher-volume formatting. Sign up takes 30 seconds and never asks for a credit card.
Style-locked variants
Already know the style? Skip the picker and land on the locked-style version of this tool.
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