Fast, Free, and Functional: An Overview of Freely Available Online Citation Tools

Abstract

Freely-available citation tools are popular with students because of their speed and convenience. Some offer the ability to copy and paste a URL and some only allow for manual entry of citation elements. This article offers an overview of the current landscape of freely-available online citation tools and some of the positives and negatives of each. Almost all of the citations these tools create require some editing in order to comply with the style guidelines used in academic writing but they are generally a useful resource for students.