AGLC Referencing Generator

Enter your source details and get a correctly formatted AGLC 4th-edition footnote, plus the matching bibliography entry, in seconds — with a live preview you can paste straight into your essay, case note or research paper. This generator currently formats AGLC’s secondary (academic) sources: books, book chapters, journal articles, reports, theses, conference papers, websites, newspaper articles and audiovisual material. Support for AGLC’s primary-law sources — cases and legislation — is coming; for now you format those by hand against the rules in the AGLC.

Used in: Australian law schools and legal practice. AGLC is the standard citation guide for law assignments, research essays, journal submissions and legal memoranda across universities in Australia.

AGLC · 4th editionNotes & bibliography

Enter your source

Auto-cite from a DOI, ISBN or PubMed ID

Or fill the form yourself below. A bare web address can’t be looked up in the browser — paste its DOI instead.

Source type

A peer-reviewed article in an academic journal.

Author

Digital Object Identifier, if the source has one.

Year published

Add an author or a title and your formatted AGLC citation appears here instantly.

In your text

A raised note number after the cited material points to a numbered footnote, e.g. “… retrieval cues.¹”. The first footnote gives the full citation with a pinpoint page; the bibliography lists the work in full at the end.

In your reference list

The bibliography is alphabetical by the first author’s surname. The first author is inverted (“Kuhn, Thomas S”) and the rest stay in natural order; given names are spelled in full with no full stop after an initial. Books and reports are italicised; articles, chapters and web pages take single quotation marks. All titles use title case.

AGLC tips
  • Use given names in full with no full stop after an initial (“Donald M Thomson”), and “and” — never “&” — before the last author.
  • Put a journal article’s details as: ‘Article Title’ (Year) Volume(Issue) Journal StartingPage.
  • For books and chapters, group the publication details in one bracket — (Publisher, edition, Year) — using “ed” with no full stop, e.g. (University of Chicago Press, 3rd ed, 1996).
  • The footnote pinpoints the first page cited; the bibliography gives the full page range and no pinpoint. Put URLs inside angle brackets <…>.
  • This generator formats AGLC secondary sources (books, articles, chapters, reports, theses, conference papers, websites, newspaper articles and audiovisual material); support for cases and legislation is coming.

Your reference list is empty. Build a citation above and choose “Add to list” to collect your sources here, correctly ordered and ready to copy or export.

Signature breakdown

Anatomy of an AGLC case citation

The generator above formats your secondary sources. But the heart of the Australian Guide to Legal Citation is the case — and a reported case is built from an exact sequence of parts. Read the spine below left to right, then see how the modern medium-neutral form replaces the reporter altogether.

Reported case
Mabo v Queensland [No 2] (1992) 175 CLR 1, 42
  1. 1Party names
    Mabo v Queensland

    Italicised, joined by “v” (no full stop). “[No 2]” distinguishes a second decision.

  2. 2Year
    (1992)

    Round brackets = the reporter is organised by volume number, not year.

  3. 3Volume
    175

    The volume of the law report series.

  4. 4Report series
    CLR

    Abbreviated series — here the Commonwealth Law Reports, the authorised reporter.

  5. 5Starting page
    1

    The first page on which the case report begins.

  6. 6Pinpoint
    , 42

    After a comma, the exact page you are relying on in a footnote.

Reported (round brackets)

When a case appears in a printed authorised reporter, cite the volume and series. The year sits in round brackets because the reporter is found by volume, not year. AGLC prefers the authorised reporter (such as CLR or FCR) where one exists.

Mabo v Queensland [No 2] (1992) 175 CLR 1, 42.

Medium-neutral (square brackets)

Australian courts now assign a citation that is independent of any publisher: [Year] COURT Number. The year sits in square brackets, followed by the court identifier and the sequential judgment number. The pinpoint here is a paragraph, written [42].

Love v Commonwealth [2020] HCA 3, [42].
Bracket rule of thumb
Square brackets [2020] mean the year is essential to find the case (neutral citations and year-organised reporters). Round brackets (1992) mean the volume number is what locates it — the year is just helpful context. Getting the bracket type right is one of the fastest tells of fluent AGLC.
Court identifiers

Reading a medium-neutral citation

The middle of a neutral citation is a court code, not a publisher. Each Australian court has its own abbreviation, so [2020] HCA 5 reads as the fifth judgment delivered by the High Court of Australia in 2020. A few of the codes you will meet most often:

CodeCourtExample neutral citation
HCAHigh Court of Australia[2020] HCA 5
FCAFCFull Court of the Federal Court[2021] FCAFC 12
FCAFederal Court of Australia[2019] FCA 1080
NSWCANSW Court of Appeal[2018] NSWCA 44
VSCAVictorian Court of Appeal[2022] VSCA 9
QSCSupreme Court of Queensland[2017] QSC 211

A neutral citation pinpoints by paragraph number in square brackets, e.g. [2020] HCA 5, [12], because judgments are numbered by paragraph rather than printed page. The case-citation generator for these primary sources is on the way; for now, the tool above handles every secondary source.

The footnote engine

How the AGLC footnote system works

AGLC is a footnote (notes) style, not an author–date one. Every claim that needs a source gets a superscript number in the text, and that number points to a footnote at the bottom of the page carrying the full citation. Subsequent references are shortened with “Ibid” and short titles so the page stays readable.

1. The marker

Place a superscript number after the punctuation it relates to: … specificity of retrieval cues.1 Numbering runs continuously through the whole document, starting again at 1 only for a fresh piece.

2. The full footnote

The first time you cite a source, give the complete citation with the author in natural order and a pinpoint to the page or paragraph you are relying on. End every footnote with a full stop.

3. Going back

Cite the same source again immediately and you use Ibid. Cite it again later and you use the author’s surname plus a short title and a cross-reference back to the first note (n).

A worked footnote sequence
  1. 1
    Endel Tulving and Donald M Thomson, ‘Encoding Specificity and Retrieval Processes in Episodic Memory’ (1973) 80(5) Psychological Review 352, 354.

    First reference — full citation, author in natural order, pinpoint to page 354.

  2. 2
    Ibid 357.

    “Ibid” = the immediately preceding source; the new pinpoint moves to page 357.

  3. 3
    Thomas S Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (University of Chicago Press, 3rd ed, 1996) 23.

    A different source intervenes, so it gets its own full first citation.

  4. 4
    Tulving and Thomson (n 1) 360.

    Returning to the first source after an interruption: short form + cross-reference “(n 1)”.

When “Ibid” is allowed
Use Ibid only when the previous footnote cites a single source and you are citing that same source again. Add a pinpoint after it if the page changes (Ibid 357); use Ibid alone if the page is identical. AGLC 4th edition dropped Latin terms such as op cit and loc cit in favour of the simple (n X) cross-reference.
The pinpoint is not optional
A footnote almost always ends with a pinpoint — the exact page (or paragraph for a neutral citation) you are relying on. The bibliography is where the full page range lives. Mixing them up — putting a range in a footnote or a single pinpoint in the bibliography — is the most common AGLC slip.
Secondary sources

AGLC templates for every source the tool builds

These are the nine secondary source types the generator above formats for you. Each card pairs the AGLC pattern with a worked example so you can see exactly where the brackets, italics, single quotes and pinpoints land.

Journal article

Pattern
Author, ‘Article Title’ (Year) Volume(Issue) Journal Name StartPage–EndPage.
Example
Tulving, Endel and Donald M Thomson, ‘Encoding Specificity and Retrieval Processes in Episodic Memory’ (1973) 80(5) Psychological Review 352–373.

Book

Pattern
Author, Book Title (Publisher, edition, Year).
Example
Kuhn, Thomas S, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (University of Chicago Press, 3rd ed, 1996).

Book chapter

Pattern
Author, ‘Chapter Title’ in Editor (ed), Book Title (Publisher, Year) StartPage–EndPage.
Example
McGann, Jerome J, ‘The Rationale of Hypertext’ in David C Greetham (ed), Electronic Text: Investigations in Method and Theory (Oxford University Press, 1997) 19–46.

Website

Pattern
Author, ‘Page Title’, Website Name (Web Page, Year) <URL>.
Example
Cherry, Kendra, ‘How Human Memory Works’, Verywell Mind (Web Page, 2022) <https://www.verywellmind.com/how-memory-works-2795000>.

Newspaper article

Pattern
Author, ‘Article Title’, Newspaper Name (online, Day Month Year) <URL>.
Example
Carrington, Damian, ‘World Leaders Strike Landmark Climate Deal at COP26’, The Guardian (online, 13 November 2021) <https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/nov/13/cop26-climate-deal>.

Online video

Pattern
Author, ‘Video Title’ (Platform, Day Month Year) <URL>.
Example
Veritasium, ‘The Science of Thermodynamics’ (YouTube, 2 April 2020) <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xb-zVtJf9Hk>.

Conference paper

Pattern
Author, ‘Paper Title’ (Conference Paper, Conference Name, Year) StartPage–EndPage.
Example
Vaswani, Ashish and Noam Shazeer, ‘Attention Is All You Need’ (Conference Paper, Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems, 2017) 5998–6008.

Thesis / dissertation

Pattern
Author, ‘Thesis Title’ (Thesis Type, Institution, Year) <URL>.
Example
Doe, Jane A, ‘Essays on Monetary Policy and Inflation Expectations’ (Doctoral dissertation, University of Oxford, 2019) <https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:example>.

Report

Pattern
Author, Report Title (Report No X, Year) <URL>.
Example
World Health Organization, World Health Statistics 2023: Monitoring Health for the SDGs (Report No. 24, 2023) <https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240074323>.
Two forms, one source

Footnote vs bibliography: the two differences

The footnote and the bibliography entry are almost the same citation. AGLC asks for exactly two changes between them — change those two things and you have both forms of any source.

2
Differences to remember
Natural
Footnote author order
Inverted
Bibliography first author
Range
Bibliography pages

Footnote

  • Every author in natural order (given name first).
  • Ends with a pinpoint to the page you cite.
Endel Tulving and Donald M Thomson, ‘Encoding Specificity and Retrieval Processes in Episodic Memory’ (1973) 80(5) Psychological Review 352.

Bibliography

  • Only the first author is inverted so the list can be alphabetised.
  • Gives the full page range, no pinpoint.
Tulving, Endel and Donald M Thomson, ‘Encoding Specificity and Retrieval Processes in Episodic Memory’ (1973) 80(5) Psychological Review 352–373.
Which edition this follows
This generator uses AGLC 4th edition (2018), the current standard across Australian law schools and law journals. The 4th edition refined the rules for online and audiovisual material and confirmed the “(Web Page, year)” form for sources published on a website. It is a footnote (notes) style, so the same citation appears as a numbered footnote (author in natural order, pinpoint page) and again in an alphabetised bibliography (first author inverted, full page range). This tool covers AGLC’s secondary sources; its primary-law sources — cases and legislation — are coming.
Get it right

Common AGLC mistakes — and the fix

These are the slips markers flag most often. Each pair shows the wrong version, the corrected version, and the rule behind the change so the correction sticks.

Avoid
Tulving, E and Thomson, DM
Use
Tulving, Endel and Donald M Thomson

AGLC uses full given names, and inverts only the FIRST author in the bibliography — later authors stay in natural (given-first) order.

Avoid
Donald M. Thomson
Use
Donald M Thomson

AGLC takes no full stop after an initial, so “Donald M.” becomes “Donald M”.

Avoid
Endel Tulving & Donald M Thomson
Use
Endel Tulving and Donald M Thomson

AGLC joins author names with the word “and”, never an ampersand.

Avoid
“Encoding Specificity and Retrieval Processes in Episodic Memory”
Use
‘Encoding Specificity and Retrieval Processes in Episodic Memory’

The title of an article, chapter or web page goes in single quotation marks, not double, and stays out of italics (italics are reserved for standalone works).

Avoid
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (University of Chicago Press, 3rd ed., 1996)
Use
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (University of Chicago Press, 3rd ed, 1996)

The edition abbreviation is “ed” with no full stop, and the publisher, edition and year share one bracket separated by commas.

Avoid
https://www.verywellmind.com/how-memory-works-2795000
Use
<https://www.verywellmind.com/how-memory-works-2795000>

AGLC encloses URLs in angle brackets and places them at the end of the citation.

The finished list

A sample AGLC reference list

An AGLC bibliography is alphabetised by the first author’s surname, with only that first author inverted. Notice the hanging look of each entry and the full page ranges — every line is a citation you could lift straight into a research essay.

Bibliography
  1. Carrington, Damian, ‘World Leaders Strike Landmark Climate Deal at COP26’, The Guardian (online, 13 November 2021) <https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/nov/13/cop26-climate-deal>.
  2. Cherry, Kendra, ‘How Human Memory Works’, Verywell Mind (Web Page, 2022) <https://www.verywellmind.com/how-memory-works-2795000>.
  3. Kuhn, Thomas S, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (University of Chicago Press, 3rd ed, 1996).
  4. Tulving, Endel and Donald M Thomson, ‘Encoding Specificity and Retrieval Processes in Episodic Memory’ (1973) 80(5) Psychological Review 352–373.
Who relies on AGLC
Australian law schools and legal practice. AGLC is the standard citation guide for law assignments, research essays, journal submissions and legal memoranda across universities in Australia.

AGLC Referencing Generator — questions

Does this generator cite cases and legislation?+

Not yet. The Australian Guide to Legal Citation is built around two primary-law source types — cases and legislation — alongside the secondary sources you also rely on. This generator currently formats AGLC’s secondary (academic) sources: books, book chapters, journal articles, reports, theses, conference papers, websites, newspaper articles and audiovisual material. Support for cases and legislation is coming; until then, format those by hand from the rules in the AGLC and use this tool for everything else.

Which AGLC edition does this generator follow?+

It follows AGLC 4th edition (published 2018), the current standard used by Australian law schools and law journals. The 4th edition refined the rules for online and audiovisual material and confirmed the “(Web Page, year)” form for sources published on a website.

How do footnotes and the bibliography differ in AGLC?+

The footnote and the bibliography entry are almost the same citation with two differences. First, the footnote keeps the author in natural order (“Thomas S Kuhn”), while the bibliography inverts only the first author (“Kuhn, Thomas S”) so the list can be alphabetised. Second, the footnote ends with a pinpoint — the specific page you are referring to — whereas the bibliography gives the full page range and no pinpoint. This generator builds both for you side by side.

How do I format author names in AGLC?+

Give each author’s name in full as it appears on the source, with no full stop after an initial — so “Donald M.” becomes “Donald M”. Use “and” (never “&”) before the last author. For more than three authors you may give the first author followed by “et al” in the footnote; the full list belongs in the bibliography.

When are titles italicised versus put in quotation marks?+

Standalone works — books and reports — are italicised. The titles of parts published within something larger — journal articles, book chapters, web pages, newspaper pieces and audiovisual items — go in single quotation marks. All titles take title (headline) case. This tool applies italics, quotation marks and casing to each field for you.

How do I cite a journal article in AGLC?+

The order is: author, ‘article title’ in single quotes, the year in round brackets, the volume with the issue in brackets, the italicised journal name, then the starting page — for example, Endel Tulving and Donald M Thomson, ‘Encoding Specificity and Retrieval Processes in Episodic Memory’ (1973) 80(5) Psychological Review 352. The footnote cites the first or pinpoint page; the bibliography gives the full range.

Where do the publisher, edition and year go for a book?+

They sit together in one set of round brackets after the italicised title, separated by commas: (Publisher, edition, Year). The edition uses “ed” with no full stop, so a third edition reads “3rd ed” — for example, (University of Chicago Press, 3rd ed, 1996). Put any URL in angle brackets at the end, <like this>.

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