Citation Guide
Citing the resources consulted and quoted in a research paper is necessary in order to avoid plagiarism.
There are many citation style guides in use today. Some are used specifically for certain subjects or in publications
of certain organizations. The most commonly used are MLA (from Modern Language Association, used in the humanities), APA (from American Psychological Association, used in the social sciences) and the Chicago manual (and the simplified version by Turabian, used primarily in history). Always check first with your instructor or publisher to see which style they prefer.
This guide provides basic guidelines and examples to frequently asked citation questions from the three major style guides. A separate page listing some of the better-known subject-specific style guides is also provided.
MLA Guide | APA Guide | Chicago Guide
Subject Specific Citation Guides
UA Dissertation & Thesis Guides
Software for Creating Citations & Bibliographies
Other General Guides
Research and Documentation Online
Diana Hacker's excellent site focuses on MLA, Chicago Style, APA, and CBE styles with sample papers and good examples. (If you don't find examples in our guides for the types of materials you need to cite, try this one!)
Citing References in Your Paper (University of Wisconsin-Madison Writing Center)
Covers APA, Chicago/Turabian, MLA, APSA and CBE styles.
Guides for Citing Electronic Resources
Online!: A Reference Guide to Using Internet Resources from Bedford/ St. Martin's Press
Software for creating Citations and Bibliographies
RefWorks/Write-n-Cite - RefWorks is a web-based citation manager program available to UA faculty, staff and students. It allows one to import citations from many of our databases, or input them manually, and then create bibliographies automatically in the desired style format. (See a list of the available style formats supported by RefWorks.)
Write-n-Cite is a related software program that can be downloaded and installed from the Refworks site. This program works within MS Word as you write your paper to allow you to access your citations stored in RefWorks and to automatically create footnotes and a bibliography.
See our RefWorks Guide for further information.
EndNote Web - EndNote Web is a bibliographic management program that will help you:
- Collect and import references from online databases.
- Organize your references for your research topics and papers.
- Create a formatted bibliography for your paper or cite references while you write.
All UA staff, students, and faculty are eligible for a free EndNote Web account.
EndNote Web is similar to RefWorks. Some differences are as follows:
EndNote Web |
RefWorks |
|
Maximum number of records per account |
10,000 |
Unlimited |
Number of citation format styles |
3,200 |
800 |
Ability to create custom citation format styles? |
No |
Yes |
Direct export from Web of Knowledge databases? |
Yes |
No |
Direct export from Ovid databases? |
No |
Yes |
Ability to attach files, such as pdfs, to user account? |
No |
Yes |
For more information, see:
Detailed comparison of EndNote Web and RefWorks (University of Wisconsin Libraries)
Landmark's Citation Machine - a free website that generates standard MLA or APA citations.
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MLA Guide | APA Guide | Chicago Guide | Subject Specific Citation Guides