This guide to citing a non-English source is published by EdCitation, whose tools look each reference up in the publisher's record and never write one. In five of the six styles we build, the rule is short: the title in its own language, then an English translation in square brackets. The styles differ on capitals, on non-Latin scripts, on naming the language, and on marking a quotation you translated yourself.
We read every rule at the style's own publisher on 26 September 2026. APA Style's pages and NLM's Citing Medicine answered with a bot check, so we read archived copies of them from August and September 2026; Cite Them Right is a subscription site we could not open. EdCitation's free Cite a source builds the entry from a DOI, and Verify references checks a list that mixes languages; we ran both on real Portuguese, Spanish, Turkish and Korean articles and quote them, faults included.
How do you cite a source written in another language?
You cite what you read, in the language you read it, and translate only the title. Adams (2021a), writing for APA Style, says the author, date, title and source stay as the work gives them, with a translation of just the title in square brackets. The other styles we read agree on that core.
What stays in the original language
The author's name, the article title, the journal's name, the volume and pages. APA's own example keeps the journal L'Encéphale in French and translates only the article title (Adams, 2022). NLM gives journal titles "in the original language" too (Patrias, 2007).
When the article has an official English title
Use it. Adams (2021a) prefers the publisher's own translation, and only otherwise your own, for meaning rather than word for word. Many journals in Spanish, Portuguese, Turkish and Korean print an English title on the first page.
When there is an English version
Cite the version you read. Revista CEFAC publishes one article in two languages with two DOIs: 10.1590/1982-0216/20222446022s leads to the Portuguese text and 10.1590/1982-0216/20222446022 to the English, and Crossref's record calls the second a translation of the first. If you read the English, cite the English title with the English DOI, and no brackets.
How do you cite a non-English source in APA 7?
Original title, then the English translation in square brackets, before the full stop. The translation is not italicised, even when the title is (Adams, 2021b). APA's examples put both in sentence case. Built for this guide from the Portuguese version of the CEFAC article:
Ptáčková, M., Martins, B., & Lukasova, K. (2022). Hábitos de leitura em estudantes universitários tchecos e brasileiros com e sem dislexia [Reading habits of Czech and Brazilian university students with and without dyslexia]. Revista CEFAC, 24(4), Article e6022. https://doi.org/10.1590/1982-0216/20222446022s
The citation in the text is unchanged by the language: (Ptáčková et al., 2022). A work with no author moves its title to the front; in the text, that title is set in title case and shortened if it is long, even though the list uses sentence case (Adams, 2021b). Our guide to APA 7 in-text citations covers the rest.
How does MLA 9 handle a source in another language?
The same way, with its own capitals. MLA Style Center posts say a title in another language is capitalised sentence-style, following that language, so German nouns keep their capitals and French ones do not (Modern Language Association, 2018). In MLA's own examples, the English translation that follows in square brackets is capitalised like any English title, in headline style. A title you translate yourself needs no note saying so (Modern Language Association, 2025).
The handbook itself is not free to read, and several posts we read are marked as written for the eighth edition. The MLA 9 works cited guide has the list's other rules.
How does Chicago author-date cite a foreign-language title?
With the English in square brackets straight after the original title, in sentence caps and roman type. That is the Chicago Manual's own answer, under its 18th edition (University of Chicago Press, n.d.-b). A title in another language takes sentence-style capitals as that language uses them: in its German example, the adjective deutsche stays lower case (University of Chicago Press, n.d.-d).
Chicago leaves more to judgement than the others. Whether to romanise a Russian journal's title is, it says, "a matter of editorial judgment rather than correctness" (University of Chicago Press, n.d.-c). EdCitation builds Chicago's author-date system only.
How do you cite a non-English article in Harvard?
In Cite Them Right Harvard, give the original title and an English translation in square brackets after it. We could not read Cite Them Right itself; the University of Westminster (2026), which follows its 13th edition, gives that rule, lets a title in another script stay in it or be transliterated, and says the author's name is always transliterated. Our Harvard referencing guide has the parts that do not change.
Harvard is not one style. Leeds Harvard asks for no translation at all: a transliteration for Cyrillic, Greek or Arabic, with the original characters beside it for Japanese, Korean, Thai and Mandarin sources (University of Leeds, n.d.). Follow the version your course names.
How do IEEE and Vancouver cite a source in another language?
Both give an English title and name the language, at different ends of the entry.
IEEE: the English title, then the language
IEEE's reference guide shows a German paper under its English title, followed by "(in German)" before the journal (IEEE, 2025). A book not translated takes "(in Japanese)" or "(in Russian)" after the publisher. It shows no original title with a bracketed translation, and nothing on your own translations. Following its pattern:
M. Ptáčková, B. Martins, and K. Lukasova, "Reading habits of Czech and Brazilian university students with and without dyslexia," (in Portuguese), Rev. CEFAC, vol. 24, no. 4, 2022, Art. no. e6022, doi: 10.1590/1982-0216/20222446022s.
Vancouver: the translation in brackets, the language last
NLM's Citing Medicine translates the title into English in square brackets and names the language of publication, followed by a full stop (Patrias, 2007). Its main examples give only the bracketed English; an optional form keeps the original title first. National Library of Medicine (2026) shows both, ending "Norwegian." We found no NLM example with both a language and a DOI.
How do the six styles compare?
Five use brackets, and each treats capitals and scripts its own way.
| Style | Title as | Translation | Non-Latin script | Example |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| APA 7 | Original, sentence case | [In brackets], sentence case | Transliterate; original script allowed | Hábitos de leitura … [Reading habits …] |
| MLA 9 | Original, sentence style | [In brackets], headline style | Script, then transliteration, then translation | "Hábitos de leitura … [Reading Habits …]" |
| Chicago 18 | Original, sentence style | [In brackets], sentence caps, roman | Writer's judgement | "Hábitos de leitura … [Reading habits …]" |
| Harvard (Cite Them Right) | Original | [In brackets] | Script or transliteration; names transliterated | 'Hábitos de leitura … [Reading habits …]' |
| IEEE | English title | None: "(in Portuguese)" after it | Romanised names and journals in its examples | "Reading habits …," (in Portuguese) |
| Vancouver | [English] only, or original first | Required, in brackets | Translation only in NLM's examples | [Reading habits …]. … Portuguese. |
| All six | Built from the DOI | By Cite a source | Checked by Verify references | Free, no account |
What about titles in Cyrillic, Arabic, Korean or other scripts?
Most styles want a romanised title, a translation, or both, so a reader can find the entry.
- APA transliterates a title in a non-Latin script into the Latin alphabet and adds the translation in brackets; where transliterating is not practical, the original script may stay, as in its example of a Hangul video title (Adams, 2021b).
- MLA posts, written for the eighth edition, give the original script, then the transliteration, then the translation, with names transliterated only (Modern Language Association, 2017).
- Vancouver examples from NLM give a Russian or Greek article only its bracketed English title, with the authors' names romanised.
Which romanisation system to use depends on the language: see our guides to Russian GOST, Korean and Japanese styles and GB/T 7714. The Turkish guide covers the dotless ı that capitals hide.
How do you quote a source you translated yourself?
APA treats your own translation as a paraphrase: no quotation marks, the author and date, and ideally the page so a reader of the original can find it (Adams, 2022). MLA and Chicago treat it as a quotation and mark it.
MLA: "my trans."
MLA gives the original, then the translation, with "my trans." in the parenthetical citation after the page (Modern Language Association, 2025). A short, unproblematic phrase, a term not presented as a quotation, or a sentence that already says the translation is yours needs no mark.
Chicago: "my translation"
Chicago puts "my translation" in the citation, as in "(Zelner 2004; my translation)", or a single note saying all translations are yours (University of Chicago Press, n.d.-a).
For Cite Them Right Harvard, IEEE and Vancouver, the pages we could read say nothing on it; ask your module leader, and see paraphrasing, quoting and summarising. A published translation, with its translator, is a separate kind of entry, for a later guide.
How do you cite a non-English article, step by step?
In this order, whatever the style.
- Decide which version you read, and use that version's title and DOI.
- Paste the DOI into EdCitation's Cite a source and choose your style.
- Check the title: the original first, the English translation in square brackets, the journal's own name. Add the translation if the entry has none.
- Fix the capitals: the original follows its language; the translation takes sentence case in APA, Chicago, Harvard and Vancouver, and headline style in MLA.
- Keep or romanise any non-Latin script as your style allows, and romanise names.
- For IEEE, give the English title and add "(in Portuguese)" or the right language; for Vancouver, add the language after the pages.
- Mark quotations you translated yourself, as your style asks.
- Run the finished list through Verify references with each DOI in place.
What does EdCitation build for a non-English article?
EdCitation is the best tool for this job because it reads the title from the publisher's record, which usually stores the English title the journal printed; a chatbot asked for one writes its own. Cite a source builds all six styles from a DOI, free with no account, screens for retraction, and gives a journal article whose record carries two titles as "original title [English title]". EdCitation never writes any part of a student's paper.
What Cite a source returned
For DOI 10.19137/praxiseducativa-2026-300319, a Spanish article, APA came back exactly as APA asks:
Méndez-Ochaita, M. F., & Hernández Ramírez, L. A. (2026). Representaciones de lectura y escritura en estudiantes universitarios mexicanos según el avance académico [Representations of reading and writing in Mexican university students according to academic progress]. Praxis Educativa, 30(3), 1–23. https://doi.org/10.19137/praxiseducativa-2026-300319
The Portuguese CEFAC article came back the same way in all six styles. To correct by hand: IEEE kept the Portuguese title with no "(in Portuguese)", Vancouver named no language, and MLA left the translation in sentence case. The English DOI, 10.1590/1982-0216/20222446022, returned the English title alone, since its record marks it as the translation.
Four more DOIs show what else to check:
- Capitals in the translation. For 10.5392/jkca.2024.24.11.664, APA gave "의과대학생들의 학업 번아웃 유형과 원인 [Types and causes of academic burnout in medical students]", the translation in the sentence case APA wants, opening with a capital. For 10.29228/sobider.71246, whose record holds the Turkish title in capitals, APA gave "Üniversite öğrencileri ve stres yönetimi [University students and stress management]".
- Two titles, one used. For 10.32329/uad.1011062, APA gave "Olcay, Z. F., & Sakalli, A. E. (2022). Covid 19’un Üniversite Öğrencileri ve Ders Notları Üzerine Etkisi." with no translation, though the record holds the English title too. The journal's page spells the second author Sakallı. For 10.24320/redie.2025.27.e11.6118, the Spanish title also came back with no translation.
- A record with its names swapped. For 10.17754/mesk.68.1.101, APA gave "기계번역에 대한 EFL 대학생 학습자의 인식조사 [EFL students’ perspectives toward machine translation]" with the author as "Ji Hyun, B.": the record files the family name as a given name. The author is Byun, J. H.
What Verify references returned
We pasted seven APA entries, in Korean, Turkish, Spanish, Portuguese and French, each with its original title and a bracketed translation. All seven were verified, the six with DOIs with "The DOI resolves to this record and the title matches." and the Turkish one without a DOI with "Title, year and first author match a published record.", matched by its bracketed English title. Without DOIs, the Korean and Spanish entries were verified the same way, by whichever half of the title their records hold. Keep the DOI in every non-English entry all the same, and check anything flagged by hand, as checking a reference is real explains. Verify references is free; References from a file, in Pro at $8 a month, checks an uploaded paper's references and matches each citation to the list.
Quick questions
Do I translate the journal name in APA?
No. APA translates only the title of the work; the author, date and journal stay as the source gives them, so L'Encéphale stays in French.
Where does the translated title go in a reference?
Straight after the original title, in square brackets, before the full stop. IEEE is the exception: its examples give the English title and "(in German)" or another language after it.
Do I have to say a translation is mine?
In MLA, add "my trans." to the citation of a quotation you translated; in Chicago, "my translation". APA treats your own translation as a paraphrase, without quotation marks.
Can EdCitation cite a non-English source?
Yes, from its DOI. EdCitation's Cite a source gives "original [English]" when the record holds both titles, free in six styles; check the capitals and the language note.
Should I transliterate a title in Cyrillic or Hangul?
In APA, yes where practical, with the translation in brackets. MLA gives script, transliteration and translation; Chicago leaves it to your judgement.
References
- Adams, A. (2021a, May 31). “Lost” in translations? Aigoo [Oh no]. APA Style. https://apastyle.apa.org/blog/citing-works-written-another-language
- Adams, A. (2021b, August 23). When and how to transliterate titles in references. APA Style. https://apastyle.apa.org/blog/transliterated-titles-references
- Adams, A. (2022, November 21). How to cite your own translations. APA Style. https://apastyle.apa.org/blog/cite-your-own-translations
- IEEE. (2025). IEEE reference guide (Version 3.28.2025). IEEE Author Center. https://journals.ieeeauthorcenter.ieee.org/wp-content/uploads/IEEE-Reference-Guide.pdf
- Méndez-Ochaita, M. F., & Hernández Ramírez, L. A. (2026). Representaciones de lectura y escritura en estudiantes universitarios mexicanos según el avance académico [Representations of reading and writing in Mexican university students according to academic progress]. Praxis Educativa, 30(3), 1–23. https://doi.org/10.19137/praxiseducativa-2026-300319
- Modern Language Association. (2017, February 8). When translating from a language that does not use roman characters, like Chinese, do I include the original characters or a transliteration? MLA Style Center. https://style.mla.org/nonroman-characters/
- Modern Language Association. (2018, April 29). Why does the MLA capitalize certain words in titles? MLA Style Center. https://style.mla.org/capitalization-of-titles/
- Modern Language Association. (2025, December 31). When must I indicate that a translation is my own? MLA Style Center. https://style.mla.org/when-to-use-my-trans/
- National Library of Medicine. (2026). Samples of formatted references for authors of journal articles. https://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html
- Patrias, K. (2007). Citing medicine: The NLM style guide for authors, editors, and publishers (D. L. Wendling, Tech. Ed.; 2nd ed.), chapter 1, Journals. National Library of Medicine. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK7282/
- Ptáčková, M., Martins, B., & Lukasova, K. (2022). Hábitos de leitura em estudantes universitários tchecos e brasileiros com e sem dislexia [Reading habits of Czech and Brazilian university students with and without dyslexia]. Revista CEFAC, 24(4), Article e6022. https://doi.org/10.1590/1982-0216/20222446022s
- University of Chicago Press. (n.d.-a). Citation, documentation of sources (Q&A No. 30). The Chicago Manual of Style Online. https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/qanda/data/faq/topics/Documentation/faq0030.html
- University of Chicago Press. (n.d.-b). Citation, documentation of sources (Q&A No. 79). The Chicago Manual of Style Online. https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/qanda/data/faq/topics/Documentation/faq0079.html
- University of Chicago Press. (n.d.-c). Citation, documentation of sources (Q&A No. 169). The Chicago Manual of Style Online. https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/qanda/data/faq/topics/Documentation/faq0169.html
- University of Chicago Press. (n.d.-d). Citation, documentation of sources (Q&A No. 378). The Chicago Manual of Style Online. https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/qanda/data/faq/topics/Documentation/faq0378.html
- University of Leeds. (n.d.). Leeds Harvard: Foreign language material. Leeds University Library. https://library.leeds.ac.uk/referencing-examples/9/leeds-harvard/105/foreign-language-material
- University of Westminster. (2026, September 9). Harvard style. Referencing your sources. https://libguides.westminster.ac.uk/referencing/harvard