Woo Hoo!
The 7th edition addresses some things that will make citations easier for everyone. No more wondering whether to underline or use italics. No more really long URLs, no more confusing web citations, and you will always know what type of source it is from the citation. These are all great things. Now, on to citation generators. First, I must admit that I have never been that big a fan. They are frequently inaccurate, and well, it just seems plain lazy. In the interest of fairness, and wanting to help my students and teachers know which ones were the best to use, I have tried out 4 of them with varying results. Here are my thoughts:
The best--Noodle Bib
The best--Noodle Bib
It does a clean citation , offers a multitude of types of sources, is correct and has been updated for the 7th edition. I am going to check into the subscription version, but the above link is for the free version.
Close second--Easy Bib
Not quite as many types of sources, but again a mostly correct (it may need to be edited in a few instances) citation that has been updated for the 7th edition.
Distant third and fourth--BibMe and Son of Citation Machine
Neither of these had been updated at the time of writing. Also, there were dismally fewer choices of sources, and the citations were not correct in many cases.
Close second--Easy Bib
Not quite as many types of sources, but again a mostly correct (it may need to be edited in a few instances) citation that has been updated for the 7th edition.
Distant third and fourth--BibMe and Son of Citation Machine
Neither of these had been updated at the time of writing. Also, there were dismally fewer choices of sources, and the citations were not correct in many cases.
Something to think about--It seems to me that it takes about as long to fill in the blanks on one of these generators (unless you put in the ISBN) as it does to just type your citation yourself. It's not that hard, people.
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