Markdown Citation and Footnote Generator
Generate markdown citations and footnotes. Paste BibTeX or a DOI, pick APA, MLA or Chicago, and get footnote syntax plus a references list.
Footnote markers work in GitHub, Obsidian, Pandoc and most static site generators. Parenthetical markers follow the selected style.
Your claim goes here.[^smith2021] [^smith2021]: Smith, J., & Doe, J. (2021). Reproducible Research in Practice. *Journal of Open Science*, *12*(3), 45–67. https://doi.org/10.1000/example.2021.001 [^knuth1984]: Knuth, D. E. (1984). *The TeXbook*. Addison-Wesley. [^mdn2024]: Contributors, M. (2024). *Markdown syntax reference*. Retrieved 2026-09-01, from https://example.com/markdown
What Are Markdown Citations?
Markdown citations are references written with footnote syntax: a marker such as [^smith2021] after the claim, and a definition line [^smith2021]: Smith, J. (2021)... that holds the formatted source. Because plain markdown has no bibliography feature, this footnote convention is how blogs, documentation sites, READMEs and Obsidian notes cite papers, books and web pages. Pandoc users sometimes prefer [@key] with a .bib file, but that only works in Pandoc.
This tool takes BibTeX, a DOI or a form, formats each source in APA, MLA, Chicago, IEEE or Harvard, and writes the footnote markers, footnote definitions and a References list for you. It runs in your browser.
How to Generate Markdown Footnotes for Citations
- Paste BibTeX entries into the BibTeX tab, or fetch a paper by DOI, or fill the Manual form and click Add citation.
- Pick a style: APA 7 for most blogs and docs, MLA 9 for humanities, Chicago for books and history, IEEE for engineering, Harvard for UK and Australian institutions.
- Copy the
[^key]markers from the In-text markers panel and place them after the sentences they support. - Copy the Footnotes output and paste the definition lines at the end of your document. Their position does not matter; renderers collect them.
- If your renderer lacks footnotes, use the References tab instead and paste the list under a
## Referencesheading.
Citation Style Reference
The same journal article formatted by each style, as the tool produces it:
| Style | Output |
|---|---|
| APA 7 | Smith, J., & Doe, J. (2021). Reproducible Research in Practice. Journal of Open Science, 12(3), 45–67. https://doi.org/10.1000/… |
| MLA 9 | Smith, Jane, and John Doe. "Reproducible Research in Practice." Journal of Open Science, vol. 12, no. 3, 2021, pp. 45–67. |
| Chicago | Smith, Jane, and John Doe. "Reproducible Research in Practice." Journal of Open Science 12, no. 3 (2021): 45–67. |
| IEEE | [1] J. Smith and J. Doe, "Reproducible Research in Practice," Journal of Open Science, vol. 12, no. 3, pp. 45–67, 2021. |
| Harvard | Smith, J. and Doe, J. (2021) 'Reproducible Research in Practice', Journal of Open Science, 12(3), pp. 45–67. |
Italics are written with asterisks so the bibtex to markdown output renders correctly wherever the document is published; the Plain text tab strips them for word processors and forms.
Markdown References List vs Footnotes
Footnotes suit prose where the reader wants to keep going and glance at the source later: the renderer numbers them, links the marker to the note and adds a return arrow. A markdown references list suits documentation and READMEs that link many sources once, or platforms such as Notion and some wikis that do not render footnote syntax. The tool produces both from the same citations, so you can start with footnotes and switch if the target platform disagrees.
Why Use a Tool for Markdown Citations
Hand-formatting markdown citations is where punctuation errors creep in: a missing period after the journal, initials without spaces, pages with a hyphen instead of an en dash. Generating them from BibTeX or a DOI keeps every entry consistent with the chosen style and lets you switch styles in one click when a publication asks for a different one. Combine it with the markdown to LaTeX converter when the same text needs to become a paper, and with the Word converter when a reviewer wants a .docx.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do markdown citations work?
Markdown has no native citation syntax, so most writers use footnotes: a [^key] marker in the sentence and a [^key]: line anywhere in the file that holds the formatted reference. GitHub, Obsidian, Pandoc, Hugo, Jekyll and Docusaurus all render this syntax as numbered, linked footnotes. A ## References heading with a plain list is the alternative for documents where footnotes do not render.
Can I convert BibTeX to markdown?
Yes. Paste one or more BibTeX entries and the footnote generator parses @article, @book, @inproceedings, @misc and @online records, including braces, quoted values, bare numbers and LaTeX escapes such as \'e. Each entry becomes a footnote definition keyed by its BibTeX key, so smith2021 turns into [^smith2021].
Which citation styles are supported?
APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago notes-bibliography, IEEE and Harvard. Chicago footnotes use the note form with first names first, while the references list uses the bibliography form. IEEE numbers entries in citation order; the other styles sort the references alphabetically by first author.
How does the DOI lookup work?
Type a DOI or a doi.org link and click Fetch from Crossref. The browser calls api.crossref.org directly, maps the record to the same fields as a BibTeX entry, and adds it to your list. If Crossref has no record or the network fails, the error is shown and nothing is added.
Why do markdown footnotes render as numbers instead of my key?
Renderers replace the key with a sequential number in the order the markers appear; the key only has to be unique within the document. Keep keys short and meaningful, like knuth1984, so the source stays readable even though readers see [1].
Is anything uploaded?
No. BibTeX parsing and formatting run in your browser. The only network request is the optional Crossref lookup you trigger from the DOI tab.