APA Citation Generator

This citation formatter generates bibliographic references according to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA) 7th edition guidelines. The tool processes input metadata including author names, publication years, titles, publishers, and URLs to construct properly formatted citations with correct punctuation, capitalization, italicization, and ordering as specified in official APA style rules.

The formatter handles multiple source types with type-specific formatting logic: journal articles receive different treatment than books, websites differ from edited volumes, and electronic sources include DOI or URL retrieval information. Author name formatting follows APA conventions converting "John Smith" to "Smith, J." with proper handling of multiple authors including the ampersand separator before the final author in references. Publication dates receive parenthetical treatment with hanging indentation for multi-line entries.

Title case conversion applies selectively—article and chapter titles use sentence case while journal names and book titles receive title case with appropriate italicization. The system validates metadata completeness, flags missing required elements for specific source types, and provides template guidance for uncommon reference types. Generated citations export in plain text format suitable for direct insertion into reference pages, or in formatted HTML preserving italics and hanging indents for digital publication. The client-side implementation maintains complete privacy for research materials being cited.