Reference List Generator
Paste a messy collection of references and get a perfectly formatted, alphabetised list in Harvard, APA, MLA, Chicago, OSCOLA, or Vancouver. Flags any references missing critical details.
Drop a reading list here or click to browse
PDF, DOCX, or TXT, max 5MB
Free to try — no signup needed. Your text is never stored or used for training.
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Why Reference Formatting Eats So Much Time
Most students lose hours at the end of a project re-typing references, fixing italics, getting the order of author initials right, and remembering whether the year goes in brackets. The Reference List Generator does all of that mechanical work in one pass so you can spend that time on the actual writing.
Common Mistakes the Tool Catches
Inconsistent author capitalisation, missing publisher locations in Harvard, inverted first/last names in APA, italicising the wrong element in MLA, missing pinpoints in OSCOLA case citations, and references that drift between styles within the same list. The tool standardises everything to your chosen format.
How the Major Formats Differ
Harvard puts the year in brackets after the author. APA puts the year in brackets too but uses different punctuation and italicises journal titles, not article titles. MLA uses page ranges with no “p.” prefix. Chicago has two variants (notes-bibliography and author-date). OSCOLA is footnote-led for legal sources. Vancouver uses numbered references in citation order rather than alphabetical.
Frequently Asked Questions
If a reference is missing critical details (author, year, title), the tool flags it with [NEEDS VERIFICATION] and lists what is missing in a separate section at the bottom. You add the missing info before submitting.
Harvard, APA, MLA, Chicago, OSCOLA (for UK law), and Vancouver (for medicine and biosciences). Pick the one your institution requires.
Yes. Upload a reading list or bibliography PDF and the system extracts the references first, then formats them. For large or scanned PDFs, processing takes a few extra seconds.
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