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General Business 360 Research Guide

Citation Generators - Problems & Limitations

Do not use citation generators. They create many errors and you will likely spend as much time, if not more, checking and editing References entries than if you just create a References page as you complete your research.

 

If you still choose to use a generator, be cautious. Even if you are using the “Cite” function on the library website or other citation generators (for instance, citationmachine.net or easybib.com), you need to perform due diligence on the citations they generate; the References entries they create are not always correct and/or updated with the latest version of APA. 

 

Common Errors Created by Citation Generators

  • Author’s initials
  • Date format
  • All caps
  • Title and proper name capitalization
  • URLs
  • Italicization
  • Page number format
  • Volume/issue format
  • Retrieval information