CitationLib

A powerful Python library for generating academic citations from various sources including DOIs, arXiv papers, PubMed articles, and web pages. The library supports multiple citation styles and output formats.

Features

• Multiple Citation Styles

  • APA (7th edition)
  • MLA (9th edition)
  • Chicago (17th edition)

• Various Output Formats

  • Plain text
  • HTML
  • Markdown
  • LaTeX
  • BibTeX

• Source Support

  • DOI (Digital Object Identifier)
  • arXiv papers
  • PubMed articles
  • PMC articles
  • General web pages
  • News articles

Installation

pip install citationlib

Quick Start

from citationlib import create_citation, Style, Format

# Basic usage - defaults to APA style and plain text format
citation = create_citation("https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03819-2")
print(citation)

# Using different citation styles
mla_citation = create_citation(
    "https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.08774",
    style=Style.MLA
)
print(mla_citation)

# Different output formats
latex_citation = create_citation(
    "https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03819-2",
    style=Style.CHICAGO,
    output_format=Format.LATEX
)
print(latex_citation)

# BibTeX output
bibtex_entry = create_citation(
    "https://arxiv.org/abs/1706.03762",
    output_format=Format.BIBTEX
)
print(bibtex_entry)

Detailed Usage

Citation Styles

The library supports three major citation styles:

from citationlib import create_citation, Style

# APA (7th edition)
apa_citation = create_citation(url, style=Style.APA)

# MLA (9th edition)
mla_citation = create_citation(url, style=Style.MLA)

# Chicago (17th edition)
chicago_citation = create_citation(url, style=Style.CHICAGO)

Output Formats

Choose from five different output formats:

from citationlib import create_citation, Format

# Plain text (default)
text_citation = create_citation(url, output_format=Format.PLAIN)

# HTML
html_citation = create_citation(url, output_format=Format.HTML)

# Markdown
md_citation = create_citation(url, output_format=Format.MARKDOWN)

# LaTeX
latex_citation = create_citation(url, output_format=Format.LATEX)

# BibTeX
bibtex_citation = create_citation(url, output_format=Format.BIBTEX)

Example with Different Sources

The library supports various types of academic sources:

# Academic paper from Nature
doi_citation = create_citation("https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03819-2")

# ArXiv preprint
arxiv_citation = create_citation("https://arxiv.org/abs/1706.03762")

# News article
news_citation = create_citation("https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/09/democrats-aggressive-stand-against-trump")

# Research website
website_citation = create_citation("https://research.google/pubs/fairness-and-optimality-in-routing/")

Error Handling

The library provides proper error handling for various scenarios:

from citationlib import create_citation

try:
    citation = create_citation("https://example.com/invalid-paper")
except Exception as e:
    print(f"Failed to create citation: {e}")

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.