About Paper Citation
A free, fast, and accurate citation generator for students and researchers.
Our Mission
We believe that citing sources should be simple, fast, and free. Paper Citation eliminates the frustration of manual citation formatting, helping students and researchers focus on what matters—their work.
Why We Built This
Citation tools should be accessible to everyone. We were frustrated with existing solutions that hide features behind paywalls, show intrusive ads, or require account creation for basic functionality.
Paper Citation is our answer: a completely free tool that respects your privacy, loads instantly, and generates accurate citations from any source—whether it's a website URL, academic DOI, book ISBN, or YouTube video.
Built with modern web technologies and deployed on Cloudflare's edge network, Paper Citation delivers instant citations from anywhere in the world.
What Makes Us Different
Privacy First
No account required. No tracking. No storage of your citations or search history. What you cite stays with you.
Lightning Fast
Powered by Cloudflare Workers, running at the edge. Citations generate in milliseconds, not seconds.
100% Free Forever
No hidden costs, no premium features, no ads. Every feature is free for everyone, always.
Accurate Sources
We fetch metadata from authoritative APIs: CrossRef for DOIs, Google Books and OpenLibrary for books, and more.
How It Works
Smart Input Detection
Our system automatically detects whether you've entered a URL, DOI, ISBN, or search query, and routes it appropriately.
Metadata Fetching
We query trusted academic databases and APIs to retrieve accurate publication information including authors, titles, dates, and publishers.
Citation Generation
We format the metadata according to the official style guides for APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago, and Harvard, ensuring accuracy and compliance.
Edit & Export
Review and edit any field if needed, then copy your perfectly formatted citation with a single click.
Technology Stack
Paper Citation is built with modern, open-source technologies for maximum performance and reliability:
- Cloudflare Workers: Serverless edge computing for instant global response times
- TypeScript: Type-safe code for reliability and maintainability
- Hono Framework: Lightweight, fast web framework optimized for edge computing
- Tailwind CSS: Modern, utility-first CSS for a clean, responsive interface
Data Sources
We retrieve citation metadata from these trusted sources:
CrossRef
Academic journal articles via DOI
Google Books API
Book metadata and ISBNs
OpenLibrary
Open book database and search
YouTube oEmbed
Video titles and creators
Support & Feedback
We're constantly improving Paper Citation based on user feedback. If you encounter any issues or have suggestions for new features, we'd love to hear from you.
Contact us at info@papercitation.com for support, feature requests, or general inquiries.
You can also reach us through GitHub issues or social media.