Paste references and get rule-based corrections: punctuation, italics markers, author order and year placement. Free.
What this tool does
Reference lists fail on grammar more than on content: a period where a comma belongs, a journal title in plain text that should be italic, a year stranded at the end of an APA entry where it belongs after the author. This engine runs a set of explicit rules over each pasted reference — double spaces, missing periods, misplaced years, unmarked titles — and returns a corrected version plus a list of what changed, so you learn the rule while the list gets fixed.
Why it matters
Good citations do quiet work. They let a reader find every source you used, they show that your argument rests on real evidence rather than memory, and they protect you: a clean reference list is much harder to challenge than a vague one. Most marks lost on referencing are not lost on difficult sources. They are lost on small, repeated slips — a missing year, a swapped initial, a title in the wrong case — that a quick tool pass catches before submission.
How to use it
- Pick the style: APA or MLA basics.
- Paste references, one per line.
- Copy the corrected list and the change notes.
Worked example
‘Patel, R. Clean water systems Oxford University Press’ (APA) corrects to ‘Patel, R. (2023). Clean water systems. Oxford University Press.’ only when a year is present — without a year it reports ‘missing year after author’ instead of inventing one. The engine never invents facts.
Tips for good results
Fix the first error in each entry first. Most later ‘errors’ in one entry are consequences of the first.
Work from the source itself, not from another paper’s copy of it. And keep one style for the whole list: a single mixed entry undermines an otherwise perfect bibliography.
Honest limits
Rules cover the basics only: spacing, terminal punctuation, year placement after the author in APA, and title capitalisation warnings. They do not cover full style manuals, DOI formatting, or author-name disambiguation, and the engine corrects format, never facts — a wrong year stays wrong, just better punctuated.
Common mistakes to avoid
Common mistakes to avoid: copying a reference from another paper without checking it against the original, trusting a PDF filename for the title or year, and mixing two styles in one list. Each of these looks harmless alone and careless together. Run the tool, read its output once, and compare it with the source itself before you paste it into your document.
Before you submit
Run through this short check before you submit: is every author name spelled as it appears on the source, is every year present and correct, and does every in-text citation have a matching entry in your reference list? Read the list once from top to bottom rather than skimming it. Most referencing errors are found in that single slow read, and fixing them there is far cheaper than fixing them after a reviewer finds them. If one entry still looks odd after that read, check it against the original source before you change anything else.
Frequently asked questions
Is this tool really free?
Yes. It runs in your browser on this page, with no account and no payment. Nothing you paste leaves your computer.
Do I still need to check the result?
Yes, once. Tools apply rules; they cannot verify facts about your source. Compare the output with the source itself before submitting.
Can I use the output in my paper?
Yes. The output is a formatted reference or analysis for your own work. Keep the source’s facts accurate and the formatting consistent across your list.
What if the tool’s output differs from my style guide?
Trust the style guide. Tools encode the common rules of a style; your university or journal’s own sheet wins every disagreement. Use the tool to do the routine work, then apply the local rule where it differs.
Also available in Spanish: Motor de Gramática de Citas Autocorrectivo – Revisiones de Formato de Citas por Reglas Gratis.