Single-citation tools format one entry at a time and leave you to assemble the list — which is where marks are usually lost. A reference list has rules of its own: what order the entries take, whether they are numbered, and how they sit on the page.
Add each source here and the whole list is built together, ordered as your style requires: alphabetically for APA, MLA, Harvard and Chicago, and numbered in citation order for IEEE and Vancouver. Change the style and the list reorders itself.
APA, MLA, Harvard and Chicago sort entries alphabetically by the first author's surname. Position in the list has nothing to do with where the source appears in your text, which is why these styles cite by author and date in the body.
IEEE and Vancouver number entries in the order they are first cited, so the list follows citation order and the number is the citation. Alphabetising a numbered list breaks every in-text citation in the document — which is why this tool keeps your entry order for those two styles.
The terms differ. APA, Harvard, IEEE and Vancouver use "References" and include only cited sources. MLA uses "Works Cited", also cited-only. Chicago uses "Bibliography" in the broader sense of everything consulted.
Check what your department specifies. A bibliography padded with sources you never opened is easy for a supervisor to spot; a reference list missing something you cited in the text is a more serious problem.
Most styles require a hanging indent: first line flush left, later lines indented. Set it as a paragraph property — in Word, Paragraph → Indentation → Special → Hanging — rather than with spaces or tabs, which fall apart the moment the text reflows.
APA and MLA want the list double-spaced. In the alphabetised styles, use no bullets or numbers at all; the numbered styles use bracketed numerals as shown here.
Alphabetise letter by letter on the surname, ignoring a leading "A", "An" or "The" when a title occupies the author position. For several works by one author, order by year, earliest first; for several in the same year, add 2020a, 2020b and use those letters in your in-text citations too.
An organisation alphabetises under its full name rather than its abbreviation — Central Bureau of Statistics sits under C, even where you cite it as CBS in the text. For Nepali names, alphabetise on the surname as the author publishes it, and where an author uses only one name, treat that name as the surname and keep it consistent across every entry.
Every in-text citation needs an entry, and every entry needs at least one citation. Work through the document ticking each citation against the list: this catches sources cut during editing but left in the list, and late additions never listed at all.
Then check the details match — the year in the text against the year in the entry, and surnames spelled identically in both. Mismatches between text and list are among the easiest errors for a marker to find and the quickest for you to fix.
For APA, MLA, Harvard and Chicago, yes — by the first author's surname. IEEE and Vancouver keep the order you added sources in, because those styles number references in citation order.
A reference list holds only what you cited. A bibliography traditionally includes everything you consulted — Chicago uses that broader sense, while the other styles expect cited sources only.
In Word: Paragraph → Indentation → Special → Hanging. Avoid building one with spaces or tabs, as it breaks when text reflows.
Earliest year first. For two in the same year, add lowercase letters after the year — 2020a, 2020b — and use the same letters in your in-text citations.
Yes. Switching style reformats every entry and reorders the list to match that style's rules, with nothing to re-enter.