Automatic Citation Generator or Other Guide for Chicago Manual of Style?
September 14, 2020 5:20 PM Subscribe
Is there an endnote and bibliographic citation generator online that you've found reliable?
When I google "chicago style citation generator," I see a few URLs have cornered the SEO on this, but can you recommend a specific tool? I guess what I'd like to be able to do is something like this:
1. Enter a URL, or
2. Enter a book title, or
3. Enter a book title with author, year, publication, edition, etc.
and then . . .
voila, citation, with all the proper commas and italicized bits and the period and colons where they ought to go.
Does such a thing exist? Usually I just go into my CMOS account and copy-paste four or five types of source into a word document and reference it. But something more automatic would be great, even if I had to put down some coin for a good service.
If such a thing does not exist, what's your go-to guide or primer for this? Is there something in the online CMOS account that I'm missing, that would be useful other than just chapter and verse in chapter 15?
When I google "chicago style citation generator," I see a few URLs have cornered the SEO on this, but can you recommend a specific tool? I guess what I'd like to be able to do is something like this:
1. Enter a URL, or
2. Enter a book title, or
3. Enter a book title with author, year, publication, edition, etc.
and then . . .
voila, citation, with all the proper commas and italicized bits and the period and colons where they ought to go.
Does such a thing exist? Usually I just go into my CMOS account and copy-paste four or five types of source into a word document and reference it. But something more automatic would be great, even if I had to put down some coin for a good service.
If such a thing does not exist, what's your go-to guide or primer for this? Is there something in the online CMOS account that I'm missing, that would be useful other than just chapter and verse in chapter 15?
If you don't want to install software, try Zoterobib, a quick, browser version. You can enter a url, isbn or other identifier, search by title or create entries manually. If something doesn't import correctly it's easy to edit.
It has access to the full citation style repository so there are a few variant 17th edition Chicago Manual of Style versions. Check you have the right one selected for your output and you're good to go.
posted by Trivia Newton John at 5:33 PM on September 14, 2020 [1 favorite]
It has access to the full citation style repository so there are a few variant 17th edition Chicago Manual of Style versions. Check you have the right one selected for your output and you're good to go.
posted by Trivia Newton John at 5:33 PM on September 14, 2020 [1 favorite]
Seconding Zoterobib.
posted by unknowncommand at 7:17 PM on September 14, 2020
posted by unknowncommand at 7:17 PM on September 14, 2020
+1 to Zotero. I even pay for extra storage just so I can support the project. I've used it to manage all my citations for all my papers in grad school, and with the Word plugin I can add citations in text and Zotero will create the bibliography for me in the correct citation style (APA 7th for me).
posted by ralan at 7:17 PM on September 14, 2020
posted by ralan at 7:17 PM on September 14, 2020
Zotero is great for this. If you don’t want to use it for some reason, I’m 90% sure there’s a citation manager (though less powerful) within Microsoft word already.
posted by raccoon409 at 7:19 PM on September 14, 2020
posted by raccoon409 at 7:19 PM on September 14, 2020
Zotero is free, but Endnote is the gold standard, IMO. If you have a budget or if you're in this citing-papers thing for the long haul, get Endnote.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 8:18 PM on September 14, 2020
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 8:18 PM on September 14, 2020
Response by poster: thanks, everyone, for a quick consensus!
posted by kensington314 at 10:27 AM on September 15, 2020
posted by kensington314 at 10:27 AM on September 15, 2020
I am a little late to this- but I have to say that in the three years between finishing my undergrad, and now getting my masters, it seems that so many of the good bibliographic apps have been scooped up by that company that rhymes with Egg. This summer I found, Citationsy is the thing that I have found that is closest to ones like Easybib and Refme of my undergrad years. Zotero is great, and I am using it for Grad school, but sometimes you just want to make a quick bibliography.
posted by momochan at 7:16 PM on September 19, 2020
posted by momochan at 7:16 PM on September 19, 2020
ZoteroBib is comparable to EasyBib/RefMe. It's not software like Zotero; it's intended for quick bibliographies.
posted by unknowncommand at 7:34 AM on September 20, 2020
posted by unknowncommand at 7:34 AM on September 20, 2020
This thread is closed to new comments.
I am not entirely clear on what your broader use case is (i.e. if you are writing a paper or whatnot) but it integrates very well with Microsoft Word and has many features beyond just creating citations in the correct style -- for instance if you delete a footnote/endnote and you're using a citation style that numbers footnotes/endnotes it will automatically renumber all the remaining ones, you can auto-create bibliographies/works cited lists, you can universally change the style all at once, etc.
posted by andrewesque at 5:27 PM on September 14, 2020 [6 favorites]