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J.W. Dickhaut Library

Citation Style Guides

Why Citations Matter

It's important to cite sources you used in your research for several reasons:

  1. To show your reader you've done proper research by listing sources you used to get your information
  2. To be a responsible scholar by giving credit to other researchers and acknowledging their ideas
  3. To avoid plagiarism by quoting words and ideas used by other authors
  4. It connects your work to that of other scholars
  5. It is one way that scholars enter into a scholarly conversation with each other.

Sources: Citing sources: Overview and Scholarly Conversations and You

Copyright

Citation Style Guides

Citation Management

Use a citation generator when you need to create a bibliography. These user-friendly, easy-to-use tools create individual citations that must be copied and pasted into a Word document. Be sure to proofread your citations for accuracy, completeness, and correct formatting. Although citation generators can be quite reliable, they are not error proof.

Citation Builder — automatically generates citations for print or online sources in MLA, APA, and Chicago

EasyBib

MLA, APA, Turabian, Chicago, etc. Some features require a free account. Upgrade for additional features.

Mendeley

Also works as a citation manager, and not just generator. Mendeley is a free reference manager for students and researchers. Make your own fully-searchable library in seconds, cite as you write, as well as read and annotate PDFs on any device.

Zotero

Like Mendeley, Zotero is also a robust citation manager. Billed as a "personal research assistant", it's is a free, easy-to-use tool to help you collect, organize, cite, and share your research sources.