The Best Free Online Bibliography And Citation Tools
Free online bibliography and citation tools have become an integral part of every eLearning project, especially for those on a tight budget. eLearning content developers make extensive use of these platforms to avoid accusations of stealing somebody else's ideas. However, the cost continues to rise if you add citation tools with advanced features. So, here are the best free online bibliography and citation tools that will get the job done without straining your eLearning budget.
1. BibMe
BibMe is a valuable and free online tool for creating bibliographies and citations. The free plan has all the basic features you need for citing in APA style and checking grammar.
- Citation Styles
With a free BibMe account, you can reference your work using the APA citation style for accurate citations. - Variety Of Sources
You can find a variety of sources, including journals, websites, books, and many other sources covering both digital and print formats. - Plagiarism Checker
Check your content against plenty of sources on the Internet to catch unintentional plagiarism and avoid using somebody else's words. - Expert Checker
Get an in-depth check from writing experts on your paper's main idea, information structure, and more. - Grammar Checker
BibMe's algorithms instantly flag grammar mistakes. Run thorough checks to ensure seamless sentence structure, continuous flow, and more. - Citation Guides
Citation guides are also available to help you ensure correct in-text citations in MLA, APA, and Chicago formats.
Pricing Plans
- Free Version
You can make precise citations in APA style, get unlimited grammar checks, and save your citations for seven days. - BibMe Plus
This is the paid version, which costs $9.95 per month and includes a three-day free trial. You can create citations using over 7,000 styles, such as MLA, APA, Chicago, and Harvard. You also get expert help on 30 papers each month and can save citation information without any limits.
2. Citation Machine
Citation Machine is a powerful bibliography and citation generator that is easy to use and packed with many features.
- Vast Citation Style Variety
Citation Machine helps eLearning content developers reference materials in four main styles: APA, MLA, Chicago, and Harvard. It also offers an extensive library with 7,000 additional citation styles for various fields. - Resources And Guides
The platform provides citation reference examples in APA, MLA, and Chicago styles, allowing you to understand how to create citations correctly in these formats. - Plagiarism Checker
This platform, like BibMe, offers checks for unintentional plagiarism, but you need to subscribe to Citation Machine Plus to use this feature. It has a large database with billions of sources to check against and can review almost any assignment. - Numerous Sources
Citation Machine allows you to cite content from books, magazines, newspapers, journals, films, and many other sources. - AI-Powered Writing Assistant
Citation Machine's AI writing assistant offers smart suggestions for writing faster and better. Additionally, it checks for writing issues, proofreads to enhance clarity, and identifies sections that can be paraphrased. - Instant Export
You can quickly export the bibliography or works cited page from your journal articles to Microsoft Word or Google Docs.
Pricing Plans
- Free Version
This includes a writing assistant for checking grammar mistakes and improving sentence structure. You can also add citations and bibliographies in various styles and source types. - Citation Machine Plus
This paid plan includes all the features of the free version, along with a plagiarism checker with unlimited access.
3. Citavi
Citavi is a multi-purpose free online bibliography and citation tool that eLearning content developers can use for their knowledge organization needs. It is also a reference manager and a task management platform.
- Research Process Management
From importing sources, referencing them correctly, and then exporting them, to managing content and allocating tasks in a team, this free online bibliography and citation tool does much more than help you create a works-cited page. - Many Options Available For Adding References
Citavi allows you to choose how you want to add references. It features 35 options, including automatic or manual referencing, using a bar code scanner, or PDF referencing. - Smart Organizing
Citavi is a citation manager that does more than help with citations. It includes a Knowledge Organizer that lets you structure your information. You can organize your documents, categorize every source, quote, or note, and quickly find what you need. - Easy Citation Generator
The platform simplifies research writing by automatically generating outlines, complete with summaries and references with citations. It also offers more than 11,000 citation styles, including APA, MLA, Turabian, and Chicago.
Pricing Plans
- Free Version
Citavi will not charge you anything for up to 100 references. - Premium Options
Various premium membership options are available for commercial, educational, student, and personal use.
4. Citefast
Citefast has a relatively simple interface but offers all the key functions of a good free online bibliography and citation generator.
- Three Citation Styles
The tool offers APA, MLA, and Chicago citation styles to cover all your basic reference needs. - Variety Of Sources
It supports a range of digital and print sources, including webpages, books, journals, newspapers, and online videos. - Style Guides For All Three Citation Styles
A comprehensive list of style tips for APA, MLA, and Chicago. - Additional Features
- A tool that lets you easily cut and paste into MS Word.
- Search tool for journals, webpages, and books.
- Citations can be accessed from any computer and brought into your account.
- Multiple bibliographies can be created.
- An in-text citation generator is available, with a guide on how to use it. A title page generator is also included.
Pricing Plans
No subscription needed. Citefast offers all of its features for free.
5. Scribbr
Scribbr is a powerful citation generator verified by experts and trusted by millions. It's a simple-to-use platform that creates citations in APA, MLA, Harvard, and Chicago styles. It also offers features for plagiarism detection, proofreading, and AI-powered writing.
- Citation Generator
Generate accurate citations in the four styles. Citations are sourced from websites, books, and articles, and you can also autocite through titles, URLs, ISBNs, or DOIs. - Citation Features
The tool offers comprehensive citation guides, custom fonts, an annotated bibliography, secure backups, and more. - Plagiarism Checker
You can get plagiarism percentage, check for AI-generated content, and even compare private documents for self-plagiarism. - Proofreading
In addition to bibliography checks, the tool also checks for grammar mistakes, dialect inconsistencies, and other writing errors to ensure a professional citation. - AI Writer
The AI writing features are also available to improve your academic assignments, through paraphrasing, summarizing, humanizing, grammar checking, and other AI-powered elements.
Pricing Plans
Scribbr is free. It offers free citation and bibliography features, as well as a free plagiarism and grammar checker, proofreader, and AI writer.
6. Docear
Docear is a free, open-source tool for managing academic literature. It helps users create online bibliographies and citations. This tool has many useful features that can support eLearning content developers in referencing their materials.
- Single-Section User Interface (UI)
Easy-to-use UI allows users to organize documents and categorize annotations. It also enables the viewing of multiple annotations in different documents. - Additional Features
- A unique 'Literature Suite' for mind mapping, PDF annotation importing, file management, academic search, and reference management.
- Open-source platform.
- Completely free to use.
- A powerful search and filter function.
- Complete control over your data.
- Available On Various Platforms
Windows, Mac, and Linux to suit the needs of any eLearning content developer.
Pricing Plans
Docear doesn't have any premium membership options, so you can use all features for free.
7. Bibliography.com
Bibliography.com is another easy-to-use free citation generator that gets you started right away. Once you open the website, the search bar is presented to enter a book, title, author, URL, or ISBN, and you will get the citations immediately.
- Three Citation Styles
The tool generates bibliographies and citations in the MLA, APA, and Chicago styles. Citation style guides are also available. - Source Suggestions
Get hassle-free source recommendations to enhance your project. - Seamless Organizing
Organize citations easily, create in-text citations, and export to Google Docs or MS Word. - Credible Sources
Cite from credible sources like journals, books, and websites with quick access.
Pricing Plans
The tool is free to use and has no subscription plans.
8. Bibcitation
Bibcitation is a straightforward, free citation generator for creating references and bibliographies.
- Various Citation Styles
You can generate citations in various styles, including MLA, APA, Chicago, Turabian, and Harvard. - Quick Bibliography
You can generate accurate bibliographies in the chosen citation style with just a click. - Many Citation Types
Search citations from a plethora of sources, including books, websites, images, eBooks, interviews, legal cases, reports, and dissertations.
Pricing Plans
The tool is free to use and has no subscription plans.
9. Mendeley Cite
Mendeley Cite is a Microsoft Word plugin that allows you to easily cite sources directly within your document. You can download the plugin and use it from the "References" tab in Word.
- Easy Citations
The tool allows you to automatically generate bibliographies and add in-text citations to your Word document with just a click. You can also change citation styles and manually edit your citations. - Seamless Workflow
The tool works best with the Mendeley PC app, where you can store and organize your research. You can also use the Mendeley Web Importer to automatically save web pages in the app and later insert citations in your document. - Vast Citation Styles
The tool supports over 8,000 citation styles.
Pricing Plans
The plugin is free to install.
10. Zotero
Zotero is a browser plugin and a textbook solution for extensive research and citations. It's easy to use and helps you seamlessly collect, organize, cite, share, and annotate your research work.
- Easy Collection
The plugin lets you save webpages as you browse and automatically senses research to prompt you. - Efficient Organizing
Zotero helps you sort research by keyword tagging or creating saved searches that automatically fill with relevant materials when you're working. - Easy Citing
The tool instantly creates bibliographies and citations for any text editor and supports 9000+ citation styles. - Smart Sync
You can also sync all your data across devices to keep your bibliographic files, citation notes, and files updated.
Pricing Plans
There are no subscription plans. Zotero is a free online bibliography and citation tool. You can download the Windows plugin or the Chrome extension.
11. CiteMaker
CiteMaker is a referencing tool that promises fast bibliography and citation creation in just three steps.
- Easy Citation Creation
First, select your preferred citation style. Next, decide whether you want an automatic citation or create it manually. Lastly, copy and paste or export the citation. However, this will require you to create an account. - Automatic Citations
The tool can automatically cite sources using ISBNs, URLs, DOIs, or BibTeX citations, according to your needs. - Additional Features
- Six citation styles supported: Oxford, Harvard, MLA, Turabian, APA, and Chicago.
- 'CiteNotes' feature to store notes about your citations.
- You can manually edit citations or delete unnecessary ones.
Pricing Plans
The tool is completely free. You can simply log in and start using it.
12. CiteThisForMe
CiteThisForMe is a free tool you can use online to create bibliographies and citations quickly. It supports a good number of sources and offers many citation styles. Its collaboration features also help make it a useful choice for users.
- Functional Interface
Citethisforme has a great layout. You can easily find everything you need from your dashboard. - Additional Features
- Great variety of sources, citation styles, and editing options.
- Comprehensive citation guides so that you can properly prep your material.
- Additional features with subscription, such as a plagiarism checker, citing as many sources as you want, organizing sources into bibliographies, and saving them all.
- Can export citations to Google Drive or download to MS Word.
- Can share bibliographies with group members for easy collaboration.
Pricing Plans
- Free Version
The free version includes all the basic features you need. It offers unlimited grammar checks and allows you to save citations for seven days. - Cite This For Me Premium
Costing $9.20 per month, the premium plan unlocks plagiarism checking, unlimited citation saves, and expert help with up to 30 papers per month.
Conclusion
Free online bibliography and citation tools are invaluable for eLearning content developers, helping them properly credit the ideas of others. These platforms offer a range of useful features at no cost, which is crucial for maintaining a low eLearning budget. In addition to citation tools, eLearning content developers should also consider using free tools for creating infographics. To explore some of the best free resources available for producing high-quality infographics for online learners, check out our list of free tools to create infographics.
