Environmental Policy

The primary reasons for citing sources in a research paper are to give credit to the authors whose work you have drawn upon and to allow readers to track down your sources, should they wish to do so.

There are many style guides for formatting citations and creating bibliographies. APA and Chicago are frequently used in public policy, but you may be called upon to use others.

• Academic Citation Resource Guide
  A comprehensive guide from SuperSummary.
• DocsCite 
  DocsCite is a step-by-step guide to putting government publication citations into proper style format (APA or MLA) using a template; from Arizona State University.
• Michigan State Citation Guide
  For guidelines on how to cite data specifically.
• Purdue Owl: APA Style
• Purdue Owl: Chicago Manual of Style
  
   

These tools allow you to gather citations and PDFs in one place and then quickly create a bibliography. You have to start using them well before your paper is due, however.

*Reminder: Check your syllabus or ask your professor before using generative AI tools for an assignment.*

AI Tools Can be Helpful With:		Be More Cautious with AI Tools if You:
Writing Models		Need very recent information
Suggesting Synonyms		Do not have previous knowledge of a topic
Copy Editing		Are concerned about potential plagiarism or copyright violations
Brainstorming		Need to perform complex mathematics
Summarizing*		Are unsure if you're permitted to use AI tools in your research or writing
Translation		Are concerned about the electrical energy use in running these tools

*Be aware of the copyright restrictions of any content you upload to an AI tool.

For more information on using generative AI resources in your research, visit our Research Guide.