Chinese GB/T 7714 citation style: the 2015 and 2025 rules

This guide to the Chinese GB/T 7714 citation style is published by EdCitation, whose tools look each reference up in the publisher's record rather than write it. GB/T 7714, 信息与文献 参考文献著录规则 (information and documentation: rules for bibliographic references, our translation), is the national standard most Chinese universities and journals name for reference lists. It is a state standard, not a house style like APA.

The standard changed this year: the 2025 edition came into force on 1 July 2026, while every university thesis guide we read still names 2015. Both are covered below, each rule read in the standard's own text on 26 September 2026. EdCitation's Cite a source does not build GB/T 7714 entries yet; Verify references and Find sources work on Mandarin-language references now, and our test runs of both are quoted exactly, faults included.

Which edition of GB/T 7714 is current?

GB/T 7714-2025 is current. China's national standards platform lists it as 现行 (in force), published on 2 December 2025 and in force from 1 July 2026, and lists GB/T 7714-2015 as 废止 (withdrawn) (State Administration for Market Regulation & Standardization Administration of China, 2025). The standard's detail page records that the 2025 edition replaces the 2015 one in full, and that both are non-equivalent adaptations of ISO 690: the 2015 edition of ISO 690:2010, the 2025 edition of ISO 690:2021 (State Administration for Market Regulation, n.d.).

What could not be read, and what we read instead

The official platform shows neither text: it says that because the standard adopts an international standard, copyright prevents it offering the text for reading. We read the 2015 text in the scanned copy that Renmin University of China (2023) posts for its undergraduates, and the 2025 text in a scanned copy linked from a notice by Central South University's journals centre (2026). Every rule below comes from those two texts.

Which edition should a student follow?

Your university's current guide, whichever edition it names. Tsinghua University (2025), Beijing Normal University (2025), Nankai University (2025) and the Communication University of China (2025) all name GB/T 7714-2015, and all four guides predate 1 July 2026. Anhui University of Science and Technology Library (2026) announced the 2025 edition to its readers on 8 September 2026. If your guide names 2015 and your supervisor has said nothing, use 2015 and ask; do not mix the two.

What are the two systems in GB/T 7714?

The numbered system, 顺序编码制, and the author-year system, 著者-出版年制. A paper uses one of them throughout, a rule Tsinghua, Beijing Normal and Nankai all repeat.

The numbered system: 顺序编码制

Sources are numbered in the order they are first cited, and the number sits in square brackets, raised in the standard's examples: 研究表明[1]. Several sources in one place share a bracket, with commas between numbers and a hyphen for a run, as in Tsinghua's [7, 9, 11-13]. A source cited again keeps its first number, and the page goes outside the bracket as a raised figure, [4]15-17. The list runs in number order, each entry starting with its bracketed number. This is the same logic as Vancouver and IEEE; what differs is the order of elements inside each entry and the type code.

The author-year system: 著者-出版年制

The text gives the author and year in round brackets. A name written in characters may be given in full where the surname alone would not identify the person, and several Chinese authors become the first author's full name and 等: (张子健 等, 2025). For a Western author the surname alone, then "et al." for more than one author. The standard groups the list by language, Mandarin, Japanese, Western, Russian and other, in that order, and sorts Mandarin entries by pinyin or by stroke order; the year follows the authors, as in 杨宗英, 1996.

What do the document type codes mean?

Each entry carries a code in square brackets after its title, saying what kind of document it is. An online source adds a carrier code after a slash: [J/OL] is a journal article read online. In the 2025 edition the table of codes became normative (规范性, binding) rather than informative.

The carrier codes are MT for magnetic tape, DK for disk, CD for CD-ROM and OL for online; 2025 adds MM for microform.

Worked examples, each source checked

Each source was checked on 26 September 2026; the entries follow the 2015 form.

1. A journal article [J]. The journal's own "Cite This Article" box on SciEngine gives this line, in characters: 张子健, 陈继文, 彭顺, 等. 中国内地学生学习投入的变迁(2006~2024年)[J]. 心理科学进展, 2025, 33(12): 2069-2082. DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1042.2025.2069.
2. A book [M]. 中国社会科学院语言研究所词典编辑室. 现代汉语词典[M]. 7版. 北京: 商务印书馆, 2016.
3. A standard [S], from the colophon of the 2015 text: 全国信息与文献标准化技术委员会. 信息与文献 参考文献著录规则: GB/T 7714-2015[S]. 北京: 中国标准出版社, 2015.
4. A web page [EB/OL], with its date in round brackets and the date you read it in square ones: 中南大学期刊管理中心. 新国标《信息与文献 参考文献著录规则》（GB/T 7714-2025）将于2026年7月1日开始实施[EB/OL]. (2026-02-08)[2026-09-26]. https://journals.csu.edu.cn/news-detail/1555.

The order of elements in a journal entry is author, title, [code], journal, year, volume(issue): pages, then the DOI. None of the standard's examples uses italics.

How are authors listed in GB/T 7714?

Surname first, always. Up to three authors are all listed; with more than three, the 2015 text says to list the first three ("著录前3个责任者", our translation) and add ", 等" or its equivalent, which is "et al." for Western names. The 2025 text keeps three but says the first three "may" (可) be given. The article in example 1 has five authors, so its entry ends 彭顺, 等. Our guide to when to use et al. sets this beside the other styles' counts.

Chinese names in characters

A name in characters is written whole, surname first, with no comma inside it: 张子健. Western authors known in Mandarin translation keep only the surname, as in the standard's 乔纳斯 for the Swiss author it gives as 伊迪斯·乔纳斯. Write names exactly as the publication prints them; the standard's rule 6.1 (5.1 in 2025) is to record a reference in the language of the source itself.

Pinyin names, and the change in 2025

Here the editions differ. The 2015 text, following GB/T 28039-2011, writes the surname in capitals and lets the given name shrink to the first letter of each syllable ("姓全大写，其名可缩写", our translation), so its examples give LI Jiangning or LI J N. The 2025 text asks for a capital initial only and prefers the given name in full ("名宜用全称", our translation): Li Jiangning. Western names change the same way, from EINSTEIN A in 2015 to Einstein A in 2025.

Universities were already moving. Tsinghua's 2025 guide, which names the 2015 standard, prints Western surnames as Einstein A and Calms R B, not in capitals, and puts one space before 等 in the text: (张中国 等, 2005).

What did the 2025 edition change?

The 2025 foreword lists fifteen technical changes. These are the ones a student will see in a finished list.

It also gives proceedings, theses, reports, standards, websites, archives, maps, datasets and preprints formats of their own.

Where do universities depart from the standard?

In the list's order and in what goes into it. The standard lists numbered references in the order of their numbers. Beijing Normal University (2025) lets a numbered list be grouped by type, books, journals and theses, and wants Mandarin works first in an author-year list. The Communication University of China (2025) goes furthest: its natural sciences rules put works read but not cited into the same list and sort everything into five groups, Mandarin books, foreign books, Mandarin papers, foreign papers and others, alphabetical by author within each.

Nankai University (2025) says the list should generally hold only published works the author has read directly, with private letters and unpublished material noted on the page instead. Beijing Normal forbids any uncited work in the list, while the standard itself allows a reading list (阅读型参考文献). Where your guide and the standard disagree, your guide is what your examiners hold you to. Our guide to dissertation formatting and university templates covers the rest of that document.

How do I build and check a GB/T 7714 list?

Take each element from the source, set it in the standard's order, and check every entry before you hand in.

1. Find out which edition and which system your university's guide names, and use one system throughout.
2. Search for literature with EdCitation's Find sources, which searches about 300 million published works by topic or by the claim a sentence needs to support.
3. Open each source's own page. Many Chinese journals print a GB/T line in their "Cite This Article" box; check it against the article.
4. Copy names and titles exactly as the source prints them, in characters if it is in Mandarin.
5. Add the type code, and /OL for a source read online.
6. For an English-language source with a DOI, build the numbered entry in EdCitation's Vancouver style, then rearrange it into GB/T order.
7. Check the finished list with Verify references, then check by hand any Mandarin entry it could not match.

What can EdCitation do for a GB/T 7714 list?

Check it, and find what goes into it; build it, not yet. EdCitation never writes any part of a student's paper, and every reference it gives is looked up in a record, never written.

Cite a source builds six other styles

Cite a source builds APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago 18 author-date, Harvard, IEEE and Vancouver only, free with no account. A GB/T entry is made of the same record elements, so the two numbered styles come closest. For the DOI 10.3724/sp.j.1042.2025.2069, the Vancouver entry came back as:

Zhang Z, Chen J, Peng S, Wu J, Wang S. 中国内地学生学习投入的变迁(2006~2024年). Xin Li Ke Xue Jin Zhan. 2025 Dec 1;33(12):2069-82. doi: 10.3724/sp.j.1042.2025.2069.

And the IEEE entry as:

Z. Zhang, J. Chen, S. Peng, J. Wu, and S. Wang, "中国内地学生学习投入的变迁(2006~2024年)," Adv. Psychol. Sci., vol. 33, no. 12, pp. 2069–2082, Dec. 2025, doi: 10.3724/sp.j.1042.2025.2069.

The title kept its characters, but the names came back in pinyin only, because the Crossref record holds no characters: take 张子健 and 陈继文 from the journal's page. Xin Li Ke Xue Jin Zhan is the NLM's abbreviation (National Library of Medicine, n.d.), right for Vancouver, but GB/T wants 心理科学进展. The BibTeX export cut the title to "(2006\textasciitilde{}2024)", dropping every character. A second article, by 陈江峰, kept the name in characters in all six styles, but its BibTeX export had an empty author and the title "------". The ISBN of the 7th edition of 现代汉语词典 came back from Open Library as "Modern Chinese Dictionary", with no editor or edition, as the catalogue record stands.

Verify references on Mandarin-language entries

Verify references is the best free tool for the records behind a list, because it looks every entry up rather than guessing: in our run it matched an English entry written the 2015 way, WALLS S C, BARICHIVICH W J, BROWN M E, to its publisher's record. It flags retracted papers, and a source it cannot reach is shown as "could not check", never as "not found". On Mandarin entries it checks less than on English ones. Example 1, pasted with its DOI and its authors in characters, came back verified: "The DOI resolves to this record and the title matches." So did the 陈江峰 article with its DOI, and example 1 rewritten with pinyin names and the English journal title. The 2015 standard, the dictionary and example 1 without its DOI came back "could not check", because entries written only in characters cannot yet be searched by their words; none was called not found. For those, add the DOI or ISBN, or check the entry by hand at the journal's or a national library's site; our guide to checking a reference is real sets out how.

Find sources in Mandarin

A search in EdCitation's Find sources for 学习投入 (learning engagement) returned 470,778 works, the first ten by relevance mostly Mandarin-language articles. Sorted by citations, the article in example 1 came sixth. Some names were shown given name first, as in "琪 潘" and "培军 梅", so take the order from the article. All three tools are free; Pricing lists what Pro, at $8 a month, adds.

Quick questions

Is GB/T 7714-2015 still valid?

The national platform lists it as withdrawn since GB/T 7714-2025 came into force on 1 July 2026. Universities whose guides still name 2015 may keep asking for it, so follow your own guide.

What does [J/OL] mean in a Chinese reference?

J marks a journal article and OL, after the slash, an online carrier, so [J/OL] is a journal article read online. In the 2015 edition it also takes the date you read it, in square brackets.

How many authors do I list in GB/T 7714?

Up to three in full. With more than three, give the first three, then ", 等" for Chinese names or ", et al." for Western ones.

Can EdCitation build a GB/T 7714 reference?

Not yet. EdCitation's Cite a source builds APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago 18 author-date, Harvard, IEEE and Vancouver; its Vancouver entry holds the same elements, which you rearrange into GB/T order.

Should pinyin names be in capitals?

In the 2015 edition, yes: ZHANG Z J. In the 2025 edition, no: Zhang Zijian, with the given name preferably in full.

References

• Anhui University of Science and Technology Library. (2026, September 8). 新版GB/T 7714-2025《信息与文献 参考文献著录规则》已正式发布 [The new GB/T 7714-2025 has been published]. https://tsg.aust.edu.cn/info/1121/4178.htm
• Beijing Normal University. (2025). 北京师范大学研究生学位论文编写规则（2025版） [Rules for writing graduate theses, 2025 edition] [PDF]. http://ss.graduate.bnu.edu.cn/core/ucontent/FmFile/r_xw_dbcl?attname=wj&attvalue=%2F2025%2F20250117-163710-107774-f8383f.pdf
• Central South University Journals Centre. (2026, February 8). 新国标《信息与文献 参考文献著录规则》（GB/T 7714-2025）将于2026年7月1日开始实施 [The new national standard GB/T 7714-2025 comes into force on 1 July 2026]. https://journals.csu.edu.cn/news-detail/1555
• Communication University of China. (2025). 研究生学位论文编写规则（自然科学版） [Rules for writing graduate theses, natural sciences] [PDF]. Graduate School. https://gs.cuc.edu.cn/_upload/article/files/c9/94/bdf75e14424b9ff0a27abc513e73/9990e7e6-2e59-4739-ba10-94061c83726e.pdf
• General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine & Standardization Administration of China. (2015). Information and documentation: Rules for bibliographic references and citations to information resources (GB/T 7714-2015). Standards Press of China. https://openstd.samr.gov.cn/bzgk/std/newGbInfo?hcno=7FA63E9BBA56E60471AEDAEBDE44B14C
• Nankai University. (2025). 南开大学研究生学位论文写作规范 [Nankai University standards for writing graduate theses]. School of Foreign Studies. https://sfs.nankai.edu.cn/2025/0402/c7262a566018/pagem.htm
• National Library of Medicine. (n.d.). Xin li ke xue jin zhan (NLM ID 101462258). NLM Catalog. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nlmcatalog/101462258
• Renmin University of China. (2023, May 23). 中华人民共和国国家标准-信息与文献 参考文献著录规则【GB/T 7714-2015】 [National standard GB/T 7714-2015]. Undergraduate School. http://jiaowu.ruc.edu.cn/xsym/bylwsj/89875eeedf1940d5aa2ed86560e6ca88.htm
• State Administration for Market Regulation. (n.d.). GB/T 7714-2025 信息与文献 参考文献著录规则 [Standard details]. National Public Service Platform for Standards Information. https://std.samr.gov.cn/gb/search/gbDetailed?id=4507EFE13D37CB6AE06397BE0A0A601F
• State Administration for Market Regulation & Standardization Administration of China. (2025). Information and documentation: Rules for bibliographic references and citations to information resources (GB/T 7714-2025). https://openstd.samr.gov.cn/bzgk/std/newGbInfo?hcno=C6CE52E55AC09B9C79A20AEA77CEDD14
• Tsinghua University. (2025). 研究生学位论文写作指南 [Guide to writing graduate theses] [PDF]. Graduate School. https://www.dhs.tsinghua.edu.cn/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/2025032107444819.pdf
• Zhang, Z., Chen, J., Peng, S., Wu, J., & Wang, S. (2025). 中国内地学生学习投入的变迁(2006~2024年) [Changes in the learning engagement of students in mainland China, 2006–2024]. Advances in Psychological Science, 33(12), 2069–2082. https://doi.org/10.3724/SP.J.1042.2025.2069