Citation generator for engineering, medical, legal and science papers

IEEE, AMA, Vancouver, ACS, CSE, Bluebook, OSCOLA, Harvard and more. Look up a DOI, ISBN or PubMed ID, or paste a reference in any style, and get it re-typed in the format your department or journal asks for.

IEEEIEEE Reference Guide (2023)
Journal article

C. E. Shannon, “A Mathematical Theory of Communication,” Bell Syst. Tech. J., vol. 27, no. 3, pp. 379–423, Jul. 1948, doi: 10.1002/j.1538-7305.1948.tb01338.x.

Fix title capitalisation for IEEE

In-text[1]

The catalogue

Every style has its own drawer: a generator set to that style, the rules as a table, an interactive anatomy of a reference, and the questions people actually ask.

IEEEIEEEEngineering, computer science, electronicsNumbered · IEEE Reference Guide (2023)HARVHarvardUK & Australian universities, business, social sciencesAuthor–date · Cite Them Right, 12th ed.AMA 11AMAMedicine, nursing, health sciencesNumbered · AMA Manual of Style, 11th ed.ACSACSChemistry, chemical engineering, materialsNumbered · ACS Guide to Scholarly Communication (2020)VANCVancouverMedicine, biomedical science, dentistryNumbered · NLM Citing Medicine, 2nd ed. / ICMJE CSE 9CSEBiology, life & earth sciencesNumbered · Scientific Style and Format, 9th ed.BLUE 21BluebookUS law — briefs, memos, law reviewsLegal · The Bluebook, 21st ed.TURA 9Turabian / ChicagoHistory, humanities, theologyFootnotes · Turabian 9th ed. / Chicago 17th ed.OSCOLA 4OSCOLAUK lawLegal · OSCOLA 4th ed. (Oxford)NATURENatureNatural sciences — Nature Portfolio journalsNumbered · Nature formatting guide BIBTEXBibTeXLaTeX papers & theses in any fieldLaTeX data · BibTeX / BibLaTeX

Why a specialised generator

Most citation tools are built around APA and MLA. Ask them for IEEE and you often get author initials in the wrong place, no “vol.” and “no.”, a full journal name where IEEE wants the abbreviation, or an alphabetical list for a style that numbers sources in order of citation.

ScholarCite was written the other way round: each formatter follows its own manual — the IEEE Reference Guide, the AMA Manual of Style, NLM’s Citing Medicine, the ACS Guide, Scientific Style and Format, The Bluebook and OSCOLA — including the details that trip people up:

“et al.” thresholds that differ by style (IEEE after six, AMA shows three of seven or more, CSE after ten, Harvard at four);
bold years and italic volumes in ACS, bold volumes in Nature;
court and year parentheticals, pinpoints and short forms in Bluebook and OSCOLA;
sentence-case titles for the medical styles, headline case for Chicago and ACS.

Not sure which kind of system you need? Try the interactive comparison of numbered, author–date and footnote styles.

Questions

Which citation styles does ScholarCite support?

IEEE, Harvard (Cite Them Right), AMA 11th edition, ACS, Vancouver/NLM, CSE 9th edition, Bluebook 21st edition, Turabian/Chicago notes-bibliography, OSCOLA 4th edition, Nature and BibTeX. Each has its own page with the rules and worked examples.

Is it free? Do I need an account?

It is free and there is no account. Formatting happens in your browser; your reference list is kept in your browser’s local storage until you clear it.

Where does the source data come from?

DOIs are looked up in Crossref, ISBNs in Open Library and PubMed IDs in the NCBI database. Always check the fields: publisher databases sometimes have odd capitalisation or missing pages.

Can I convert a reference from APA or MLA into IEEE or Vancouver?

Yes. Choose “Paste a reference (AI)”, paste the existing reference, and ScholarCite splits it into fields. Then pick any style tab to re-format it. Check the result, because AI can misread unusual references.

Why is there no APA or MLA tab?

General citation tools already cover APA and MLA well. ScholarCite focuses on the formats they get wrong or leave out: numbered engineering and medical styles, chemistry, and legal citation.