Free citation generators tested: APA 7 accuracy with the same 3 sources (2026)
Same 2 DOIs and 1 ISBN in 4 citation generators: ZoteroBib 3/3 correct APA 7, Scribbr and Citation Machine 2/3, MyBib 0/3 (title case, doubled DOI).
Your reference list is due. Which free citation generator gets APA 7 right when you paste a DOI or an ISBN?
We gave four free citation generators the same three sources – two journal articles by DOI and one book by ISBN – and checked every APA 7 reference they produced against the Crossref record and APA rules (authors, year, sentence-case title, journal, volume(issue), pages, DOI). Tested on 5 October 2026 in Chrome on Windows, without signing in.
How many tools? Four: ZoteroBib, Scribbr, Citation Machine and MyBib. MLA 9 output was not checked in this round.
Our take: ZoteroBib was the only tool that produced all three references correctly. Scribbr and Citation Machine were perfect on DOIs but failed the book (no result / wrong title). MyBib got none of the three fully right.
- ✓ Same 3 inputs, same day, checked by us
- Checked against Crossref and APA 7 rules
- ! Always proofread generated titles
The short answer: pick by what you need
- Most accurate, no account, no ads seen: ZoteroBib (zbib.org) – 3/3 correct; it converts titles to sentence case and warns you to fix proper nouns. See our Zotero page.
- Journal articles by DOI: Scribbr – both DOIs perfect, but ads, and references expire after 30 days unless you sign up.
- If you already use it: Citation Machine – DOIs correct, but three screens per citation and the book title came back with the authors glued on.
- Double-check everything: MyBib – clean and free, but titles stayed in title case and one DOI was printed twice.
Results at a glance
| Tool | Our pick score | Go to site | Correct APA 7 entries | Article 1 (DOI) | Article 2 (DOI) | Book (ISBN) | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ZoteroBib | ★★★★★ 5 Top pick | Open ↗ | 3/3 | Correct | Correct | Correct | Most accurate; with a Chinese browser language the page-range dash showed as “～” |
| Scribbr | ★★★★☆ 4 Recommended | Open ↗ | 2/3 | Correct | Correct | “No results found” (also in Books tab) | Best for DOIs; ads shifted the layout once |
| Citation Machine | ★★★☆☆ 3 Good for specific needs | Open ↗ | 2/3 | Correct | Correct | Title included author names (first result) | Slow flow: search → confirm → form → complete |
| MyBib | ★★☆☆☆ 2 Use with care | Open ↗ | 0/3 | Title case + “https://doi.org/https://doi.org/…” | Not matched – top suggestion was an unrelated 1990 article | Title in title case, extra website URL | Fast and clean, but needs proofreading |
Expected references (APA 7): LeCun, Y., Bengio, Y., & Hinton, G. (2015). Deep learning. Nature, 521(7553), 436–444. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature14539 · Jordan, M. I., & Mitchell, T. M. (2015). Machine learning: Trends, perspectives, and prospects. Science, 349(6245), 255–260. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aaa8415 · Goodfellow, I., Bengio, Y., & Courville, A. (2016). Deep learning. MIT Press. (“The MIT Press”, as all tools printed it, was not counted as an error.)
The two mistakes to look for
Title case. APA 7 wants article and book titles in sentence case (“Deep learning”, not “Deep Learning”). MyBib kept the capitalised form; ZoteroBib converted automatically and showed a notice reminding you to re-capitalise proper nouns.
Wrong match. A generator that searches instead of resolving the identifier can pick the wrong record. MyBib’s first suggestion for our second DOI was a different article, and Citation Machine’s first book result had the authors inside the title. Check the result against the source before you copy it.
Before you rely on one
- Storage: ZoteroBib says citations are stored locally in your browser. Scribbr shows “Your references will expire in 30 days” without an account.
- Ads: Scribbr loaded 23 iframes on the list page and an ad pushed our click onto “Export to Word”. Citation Machine shows a cookie banner, video and ads.
- Locale: ZoteroBib follows the browser language for some punctuation; set English if your page ranges look odd.
How we tested
- Inputs: DOI 10.1038/nature14539, DOI 10.1126/science.aaa8415 and ISBN 9780262035613, pasted exactly as written into each tool’s main search field (journal or book tab where the tool asks for one).
- Check: each generated APA 7 reference compared with the Crossref metadata and the APA 7 reference format. An entry counts as correct only if every element is right.
- Environment: Chrome on Windows, not signed in, cookie banners declined, 5 October 2026. No files were downloaded.
- Not tested: MLA 9, webpages, browser extensions, Word add-ins.
Checked by SiteCurio on 5 Oct 2026. Tools change; results may differ later.