BibTeX to APA Citation Converter

Convert BibTeX entries to APA 7th edition references in seconds. Paste any @article or @book entry and copy a clean APA citation. Free, no sign-up.

Paste a BibTeX entry to get a APA citation

What is BibTeX?

BibTeX is the reference format used by LaTeX and by reference managers such as Zotero, JabRef, and Mendeley. Each entry starts with an @ sign and a type – @article, @book, @inproceedings – followed by a citation key and a set of field–value pairs for authors, title, journal, year, and pages. BibTeX stores the raw data of a reference rather than a formatted citation, which makes it ideal input for conversion: every field is already labeled, so nothing has to be guessed from punctuation. Paste one or more entries into CiteTools and the parser reads the fields directly. If the entry carries a doi field, CiteTools can also verify the record against CrossRef. The output is a finished citation you can paste into a paper written in Word or Google Docs.

How the BibTeX to APA conversion works

Copy a BibTeX entry from your .bib file or reference manager and paste it into the input field.
CiteTools parses the entry’s fields and decodes LaTeX markup such as protective braces and accent commands.
Copy the formatted citation, or export the result as plain text, HTML, or RTF.

Example input:

@article{watson1953,
  author  = {Watson, James D. and Crick, Francis H. C.},
  title   = {Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids},
  journal = {Nature},
  volume  = {171},
  pages   = {737--738},
  year    = {1953},
  doi     = {10.1038/171737a0}
}

About APA Style

American Psychological Association - commonly used in psychology, education, and social sciences.

APA 7th edition is the default style in psychology, education, nursing, and most social sciences. References use initials for given names, sentence case for article titles, italics for journal names, and a DOI rendered as a full https://doi.org URL. CiteTools applies these rules for you, including the ampersand before the final author and the (n.d.) form when no date exists.

Frequently asked questions

Which BibTeX entry types are supported?

The common types all work: @article, @book, @incollection, @inproceedings, @phdthesis, @techreport, and @misc. CiteTools maps each type onto the matching reference form in your chosen style.

Do I need the full entry?

The parser needs the fields your target style prints. Author, title, and year produce a usable citation; adding journal, volume, and pages makes it complete. If the entry has a doi field, CiteTools can fill gaps from CrossRef.

Will braces and LaTeX escapes be cleaned up in APA?

Yes. Protective braces around capital letters and LaTeX accent commands are decoded before formatting, so the APA output contains normal readable text instead of markup.